Ann Arbor City Council Backs Local Gun Control

(AP Photo/Jeff Roberson, File)

Anti-gunners love it when local governments can pass their own gun control laws. They don’t like it when local governments become sanctuary communities, of course, but they do so love to make owning a gun more onerous with every passing day, even if they have to do it by creating a patchwork of gun laws that are damn near impossible to navigate.

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Luckily, a lot of states have preemption which prevents this kind of thing.

However, officials in Ann Arbor are hoping to change that.

Ann Arbor officials are voicing support for legislation introduced by state Sen. Jeff Irwin in hopes of restoring local control over guns on public property.

City Council unanimously OK’d a resolution this week in support of Senate Bill 352, which would allow cities, townships and counties to prohibit firearms on their municipal properties.

“Currently, state law prevents municipalities from governing firearms on city property and publicly owned properties and in municipal buildings,” said Council Member Travis Radina, D-3rd Ward, who brought forward the council resolution.

The law proposed by Irwin would allow the city to make its municipal buildings and properties safer, Radina said.

“We know unfortunately from an incident just a few years ago in Virginia Beach, where municipal employees were killed by someone who entered the building with a firearm, that this is a real problem and a real danger that faces municipal employees,” he said.

“And so I think this is a step toward showing our support for a law that would not only empower us as local legislators who are the closest to the potential problem, but would also help keep our community safe.”

Irwin, D-Ann Arbor, introduced his bill last month and it’s still in committee.

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Of course, the reason the bill is still in committee is that it doesn’t have a hope in hell of actually passing. The legislature leans red and Republicans aren’t likely to give Democrats what they want, especially on such a core issue like gun rights.

However, the question is whether that makeup will change come the next election.

In the meantime, though, Ann Arbor wants to be able to pass its own gun control laws, but like so many other communities complaining about not being able to address local problems with violence, they’re not looking at much of anything beyond gun control.

And, as for Virginia Beach, it should also be noted that the shooter in that attack was an employee who was barred from carrying a gun into the municipal building. How did that work out again? 12 people dead, plus the killer, four others injured? Yeah, that really worked well.

Bad actors who want to hurt others aren’t going to be dissuaded by the law. They’re not going to be dissuaded by a sign on the door or even metal detectors at the entrance. They’re going to just start by killing those folks first.

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If Ann Arbor is having problems, then maybe they need to start by addressing those problems with the tools they have available, rather than complaining they don’t have the one tool that doesn’t work anyway.

Instead, they’re jumping at shadows and pretending that’s all the reason in the world to take away people’s rights.

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