Gun Control Rally & Pro-2A Counter-Protest in Michigan

Gun control advocates and protesters against new gun laws gathered at the Michigan State Capitol on Wednesday for ‘Rally for Gun Safety’ with former Congresswoman Gabby Giffords. The event was held as the Michigan Legislature takes up new gun control bills this month following the mass shooting at Michigan State University in February.

The event featured speeches from students, mass shooting survivors and several elected officials, including Governor Gretchen Whitmer and Attorney General Dana Nessel.

Gabby Giffords, the former Congresswoman from Arizona who survived an assassination attempt and mass shooting in 2011, spoke to the crowd of a few hundred gathered in Lansing. The event was held by the gun control advocacy organization she co-founded, Giffords.

Protesters against new gun control measures were present throughout the event, at times chanting during speeches, at other times engaging in dialogue with some of the rallygoers. A mobile digital billboard drove past throughout the rally, with messages against some of the new proposed laws and criticizing the 2019 prosecution of Anthony McRae, the man who would go on to kill three MSU students in 2023, where a felony firearm-related charge was dropped by prosecutors and he instead plead guilty to a misdemeanor, allowing him to continue to possess firearms.

Among the bills making their way through the Michigan Legislature are proposals for universal background checks, safe storage requirements, and ‘extreme risk protection orders’, also known as red flag laws, that would allow courts, following submission of a petition, to bar individuals from firearm possession without being charged with a crime. The bills have support among many Democratic lawmakers, whose party is now in the majority in both chambers of the Legislature and the governorship for the first time since 1983, following the 2022 elections in the state.