HB5225 - State House votes to end the pistol permit system!

This took over 80 years to fix. The state house, led by Paul Opsommer, Ray Franz, and Richard LeBlanc all came through for the 2nd Amendment by repealing the worst of Michigan's gun control laws. This puts the pistol system in line with federal law. The NICS checks would still be in effect if it passes the state senate.This would eliminate the pistol purchase permit requirements. There's still some registration, but this also requires MSP to destroy records within 6 months of passage.

This was a somewhat bipartisan effort. All republicans voted correctly on this, along with 11 democrats. I'm a little surprised at some of the dem votes both for and against.  I expected better from Hammel, Constan, Kandrevas, and Clemente. Downriver and Flint burbs have usually been favorable to 2a. Interestingly, this August will have a primary race between Liss and Switalski. If you are a 2a supporter of any party in parts of Warren, then remember that election time. I'm slightly surprised in a good way with Oakes (in Mike Hanley's old district?), Slavens, Schmidt, and Dillon (Man oh man have things changed in Kent County the last 15 years on this issue - in a good way), but that's largely due to the districts more than anything else.

There's three Republican votes that surprised me. I won't mention who because they did the right thing. I don't want to put doubt in minds of readers when reps vote correctly. Heise is a big improvement over the last two republicans in that district.

From Michigan Votes:

IN FAVOR

HOUSE DEMOCRATS

Brunner (D)	Byrum (D)	Dillon (D)	Lane (D)	LeBlanc (D)
Liss (D)	Oakes (D)	Schmidt, R. (D)	Segal (D)	Slavens (D)
Smiley (D)

HOUSE REPUBLICANS

Agema (R)	Bolger (R)	Bumstead (R)	Callton (R)	Cotter (R)
Crawford (R)	Daley (R)	Damrow (R)	Denby (R)	Farrington (R)
Forlini (R)	Foster (R)	Franz (R)	Genetski (R)	Gilbert (R)
Glardon (R)	Goike (R)	Graves (R)	Haines (R)	Haveman (R)
Heise (R)	Hooker (R)	Horn (R)	Hughes (R)	Huuki (R)
Jacobsen (R)	Jenkins (R)	Johnson (R)	Knollenberg (R)	Kowall (R)
Kurtz (R)	LaFontaine (R)	Lori (R)	Lund (R)	Lyons (R)
MacGregor (R)	MacMaster (R)	McBroom (R)	McMillin (R)	Moss (R)
Muxlow (R)	Nesbitt (R)	O'Brien (R)	Olson (R)	Opsommer (R)
Ouimet (R)	Outman (R)	Pettalia (R)	Poleski (R)	Potvin (R)
Price (R)	Pscholka (R)	Rendon (R)	Rogers (R)	Schmidt, W. (R)
Shaughnessy (R)	Shirkey (R)	Somerville (R)	Stamas (R)	Tyler (R)
Walsh (R)	Yonker (R)	Zorn (R)

---

AGAINST

HOUSE DEMOCRATS

Ananich (D)	Barnett (D)	Bauer (D)	Bledsoe (D)	Brown (D)
Cavanagh (D)	Clemente (D)	Constan (D)	Darany (D)	Durhal (D)
Geiss (D)	Greimel (D)	Hammel (D)	Haugh (D)	Hobbs (D)
Hovey-Wright (D)	Howze (D)	Irwin (D)	Jackson (D)	Kandrevas (D)
Lindberg (D)	Lipton (D)	McCann (D)	Meadows (D)	Nathan (D)
Olumba (D)	Rutledge (D)	Santana (D)	Stallworth (D)	Stanley (D)
Stapleton (D)	Switalski (D)	Talabi (D)	Tlaib (D)	Townsend (D)
Womack (D)

It's on to the State Senate. It should pass there if it goes up for a vote. Richardville isn't reliable on fiscal issues all the time, but he's solid on 2nd Amendment issues. Hopefully Snyder will sign it. I don't think he has that strong of opinion on this issue one way or the other, but I don't think he'd stand in our way with it if it heads to our desk.