LANSING, Mich. — The Michigan State Capitol building now has new equipment that everyone who visits will have to go through.
“We recently installed weapons detection equipment," said Bill Kandler, chair of the Michigan State Capital Commission.
He says this installment has been in the works for about three years.
“A little over three years ago, we had a demonstration here in the Capitol of people coming into the building with guns long guns," he said. "We had legislators sitting in the gallery, performing their constitutional duties to debate and vote on issues and peering down on them from the gallery with people with guns, and it just didn't seem appropriate to me at all.”
Kandler says two years ago they were able to ban open carry guns.
“Now, we're in the process, we're going to ban any guns. We say weapons in our policy and weapons would be guns or explosives," he said.
The weapons detectors involve advance technology that can pick up anything someone has on their bodies.
“Some people carry guns, their ankle holster it will pick that up shoulder holsters, anything or anything tucked in anywhere," Kandler said.
The detectors are located at the main, south, north and the Heritage Hall entrances, and there will be one to two police officers there to check those who make the alarms go off.
Kandler says with the building has lots of visitors, including thousands of students, and having these detectors will just make sure everyone is safe.
“We want legislators to be able to do their job here and their staff safely without you know being in fear somebody who had gotten in the building who intend to do harm and would have a weapon to damage with pretty severely," he said.
Even though these detectors have been installed, Kandler hopes it won’t scare people away from visiting.
“A very safe place. It has been safe. We want to keep it that way," he said. “This is a peoples building, very beautiful building very important architectural artifacts. So, we'd like people to come here and keep coming. Don't be afraid.”
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