Online Petition Seeks to Close Loophole Allowing Guns in Schools

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Parents in the Ann Arbor school district, which is being sued over a gun ban adopted earlier this spring, have launched an online petition drive asking the Michigan Legislature to declare schools gun-free zones.

By Monday evening, nearly 1,500 signatures had been gathered in support of the MoveOn.org petition started by Dr. Sonya Lewis, Michigan Radio and MLive.com are reporting.

As the law currently stands, adults may not carry concealed weapons in schools, but may openly carry pistols. Gun rights advocates tested the law earlier this spring in several southeast Michigan school districts, including Ann Arbor, where Josh Wade carried a gun into a high school choir performance.

In response, the Ann Arbor school board banned all guns on school property, and the Michigan Gun Owners is suing the district.

The petition launched by Lewis last month supports House Bill 4261, which would close what Lewis calls the “open carry loophole.”

”(The bill) would be unambiguous that nobody can carry a gun into a school, and that means concealed or openly,” Lewis told Michigan Radio.

The petition states:

“Michigan schools should be safe havens where children have the right to learn in an environment that’s free of the danger, stress, terror and disruption caused by guns in school. Teachers should have the right to teach in an intimidation-free environment without the extra burden of having to determine whether a person carrying a gun at school is a threat.

“The recent open carry incidents at Michigan schools have shown that it’s up to our lawmakers to keep guns out of schools: until you act, open carry extremists will continue to cause expensive and disruptive lockdowns and put our children in danger.”

After the Ann Arbor incident, Wade said banning guns from schools can make them “mass murder enablement zones.” Criminals would see gun-free zones as “opposition-free” zones.

“Where better to be armed?” he told MLive.com. “Where is the place you need to be armed more than a place that could be perceived as a target-rich environment?”

However, Lewis, a psychiatrist, said it’s impossible to know whether a person carrying a gun on school grounds is a threat.

Related: Gun Advocates Press for Right to Carry Weapons in Schools

“Having weapons in schools introduces a tremendous possibility for things to go horribly wrong,” she told Michigan Radio. “We don’t want guns in schools because we don’t want death and injury and increased risk and danger in our schools.”

The Ann Arbor incident was one of several high profile cases that put Michigan gun laws in everybody’s face – including students whose school was placed on lockdown twice this spring after a man with a holstered Glock 23 semi-automatic handgun and antique Russian made Mosin-Nagant rifle slung over his shoulder stood near their schoolhouse door.

Shawn Nixon, 39, openly carried the weapons as he walked from his home in Royal Oak to Lamphere High School in Madison Heights on March 4. Officials locked the schoolhouse doors, and area police asked him to leave.

Gun activists with the Michigan Open Carry group said at the time they were making an orchestrated effort to raise awareness of open-carry and other gun laws.

“The Second Amendment advocates are very well organized and well financed. We’re just looking for any way to have our voice heard in opposition to them,” said Dan Meisler, an Ann Arbor parent, told MLive.com. “I firmly believe the majority of people believe it is ludicrous and ridiculous people can open carry in school.”

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