EAST LANSING, Mich. — At Michigan State University Thursday morning, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed into law new gun reform bills.
“What our governor has done today is historic. We’re looking forward to seeing the impact that it can have because now the whole community, all our cities, all our Michiganders have something to work behind now,” said Pastor Ovella Davis from Detroit.
The new laws require background checks on all unlicensed firearms and secure firearm storage. Gov. Whitmer was joined by advocates and other gun violence survivors, who were pleased at the progress.
"As a volunteer for Moms Demand Action, I've been working for several years to try and get this legislation passed. And finally, we have a gun-sense majority in the state that is able to make this happen," said one gun reform advocate.
"It's passed, and lives are going to be saved, so this, this is amazing," said another Moms Demand Action volunteer.
Later Thursday, hundreds of people with Moms Demand Action went to the Michigan Capitol to push for more gun reform legislation.
While gun safety advocates filed into the gallery, the Michigan House voted to approved extreme risk protection orders, also known as red flag laws. The bill now heads to the Senate.
Oakland County Prosecutor Karen McDonald was also at the Capitol and said she is hopeful but the work is far from done.
“I’m thrilled and hopeful that we’re taking good steps in common sense regulation and reform, but it is just one piece," McDonald said.“We need to be cognizant and strategic about how we approach this. I would like the Legislature to approach this like a public health crisis.”
Thursday also marked two months since the deadly mass shooting on Michigan State's campus, which took the lives of three students and injured five others.
One MSU student said that, while she is happy about the new laws, she is sad that a mass shooting on her college campus had to be the catalyst for that change.
"It sucks that it had to take us and like three lives for some of that change to come along with other lives, but the fact that it's happening like right after, I feel like its really like proof that like we were the catalysts, and Oxford as well, that showed that we had to do something and change had to be made," said MSU student Asha Denny.
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