Michigan to Expand Concealed Carry & Eliminate Concealed Weapons Licensing Boards

Charlotte, NC --(Ammoland.com)- As the Michigan legislature works through the final weeks of its 2011-2012 session, the state Senate approved Senate Bill 59 by a vote of 27 to 11 (vote is on page 2307). This bill was sent to the House where it has been assigned to the Committee on Natural Resources, Tourism, and Outdoor Recreation.

This pro-Second Amendment reform legislation sponsored by Senator Mike Green (R-Mayville) would streamline the process for a concealed weapons license, while creating expanded carry zones in previously prohibited places for those who are willing to undergo enhanced training. Along with many other improvements, SB 59 would, if enacted, also eliminate concealed weapons licensing boards and instead assign the role of licensing authority to county sheriffs effective May 1, 2013. Further requirements to streamline and improve the license process include establishment of a system for refunds of fees, requirement of county sheriffs who maintain fingerprinting capability to provide reasonable access to fingerprinting services, and a requirement to either issue or deny the license within a 45-day period from the date of application.

The House Committee on Natural Resources, Tourism, and Outdoor Recreation will need to consider this legislation in the next couple weeks, however, at this time the committee has not finalized its calendar. The NRA-ILA will continue to keep you updated on this and other Second Amendment issues in Michigan.

About: Established in 1975, the Institute for Legislative Action (ILA) is the “lobbying” arm of the National Rifle Association of America. ILA is responsible for preserving the right of all law-abiding individuals in the legislative, political, and legal arenas, to purchase, possess and use firearms for legitimate purposes as guaranteed by the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Visit: www.nra.org

Black history can provide timely lessons that put today’s policy debates in a new light. Take, for instance, the African-American experience with the right to self-defense.

The story starts in September 1925, when Dr. Ossian Sweet moved his family into a two-story home on the corner of Garland and Charlevoix on Detroit’s east side. A prominent gynecologist and a graduate of Howard University medical school, Dr. Sweet had studied and worked in Europe — including a stint with Nobel Prize winner Madame Curie in Paris — before settling in Detroit.

One might expect that Sweet would be out of place in the poor, working-class neighborhood. And he was. But it was not so much because of his wealth and education as the fact that he was black and the neighbors were white.

After Sweet moved in, a mob of hundreds gathered across the street and grew increasingly ugly. The Waterworks Park Improvement Association, as the mob called itself, had driven another black doctor out of his Detroit home some weeks before.

Anticipating trouble, a dozen police officers cordoned off the area for three blocks around and walked up and down the street between the mob and the Sweet residence.

The Sweet family did their best to maintain an air of normalcy. Mrs. Sweet was in the kitchen preparing dinner, and several family and friends were helping unpack, when the crowd started howling and stones began pelting the house.

Dr. Sweet grabbed a gun and dashed to an upstairs window to get a better — and safer — view of what was going on outside his new home. Just as he saw a car with his brother, Henry, and a family friend pull up to the curb, a rock smashed through the window and showered him in shards.

The now-terrified doctor ran back downstairs to let his brother and their friend into the house as the crowd was screaming, “Here’s niggers! Get them! Get them!”

That’s when the first shot rang out. In the ensuing pandemonium, no one is certain how or in what order events then unfolded.

It is certain that six of the 11 people inside the house fired their weapons, as did at least one police officer outside; in fact, he emptied his revolver. Two people in the mob were struck — one fatally. The police, who until gunfire erupted had been little more than spectators, stormed the house and arrested everyone inside, charging them all with murder.

The sensational case polarized the city, but it ended up assigned to a judge whose integrity and personal courage would one day make him a Michigan legend. “This is the opportunity of a lifetime to demonstrate sincere liberalism,” remarked the unflappable presiding Judge Frank Murphy, who immediately released Mrs. Sweet on bail.

Nor were the defendants wanting for high-powered representation. Clarence Darrow came into Detroit to handle the case. This pioneer in the cause of “equal protection before the law” spent three weeks on jury selection alone — most of it in a painstakingly detailed recounting of the history of the black man in America.

Following a seven-week trial and three days of often acrimonious deliberations by the all-white jury, Judge Murphy ruled that a verdict could not be reached and declared a mistrial.

Prosecutors decided to retry only Ossian’s brother, Henry, who had freely admitted firing his gun.

At the second trial, Darrow never denied that his sole remaining client may have fired the fatal shot, but argued that the defendant was justified and acting in self-defense. The second jury (also all-white) took barely three hours to return a “not guilty” verdict.

As a consequence of this incident, the Ku Klux Klan — which operated much more openly in those days — lobbied for and obtained the first round of restrictive gun legislation in Michigan. The Public Acts of 1927 included the requirement that citizens obtain government-issued “purchase permits” following mandatory “safety inspections.” Even then, the opportunity to legally carry the weapon would be granted only at the whim of (unaccountable) county “gun boards.”

http://www.tysknews.com/Depts/2nd_Amend/history_gives_verdict_on_self.htm

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