Michigan – -(AmmoLand.com)- Gun prohibitionists are moving swiftly to capitalize on the fatal school shooting in Oxford Township, Mich., that has now taken four students’ lives and left at least six other students and one adult, wounded, and the media now appears focused on how the 15-year-old suspect was armed with a pistol his father purchased just days before.
The suspect, identified as 15-year-old Ethan Crumbley, has been charged as an adult with 1 count of terrorism, four counts of first-degree murder, seven counts of assault with intent to commit murder and 12 counts of possession of a firearm in the commission of a felony, according to Oakland County Prosecutor Karen C. McDonald. During her remarks to the press, she called for additional gun control.
“If the incident yesterday of four children being murdered is not enough to revisit our gun laws, I don’t know what is,” she said.
Anti-gun U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT) tweeted, “Driving home tonight, I thought about Republicans’ floor speeches today on the “sanctity of life”. And how this concern for ‘life’ apparently doesn’t extend to the kids who were shot today in a school in Michigan. So I turned the car around, and went to the Senate floor.”
There, he delivered remarks excoriating Senate Republicans for opposing gun bans, apparently without him doing any research on the facts of the tragic shooting.
Driving home tonight, I thought about Republicans' floor speeches today on the "sanctity of life".
And how this concern for "life" apparently doesn't extend to the kids who were shot today in a school in Michigan.
So I turned the car around, and went to the Senate floor. pic.twitter.com/yJ8FthS0nE
— Chris Murphy (@ChrisMurphyCT) December 1, 2021
“You care about life,” Murphy declared. “Then get these military-style weapons off the streets, out of our schools.”
But Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard had reportedly already identified the gun recovered by his deputies as a 9mm Sig Sauer SP2022 semi-auto, which carries a 15-round magazine. It is an exposed-hammer double-action/single-action pistol with a polymer frame, Nitron-finished stainless steel slide, night sights, not a “military-style weapon,”—whatever that might be—that Murphy and others want to ban.
Shannon Watts, founder and head of Moms Demand Action, the subsidiary of anti-gun billionaire Michael Bloomberg’s Everytown for Gun Safety, released an email blast, stating in part, “our volunteers are demanding urgent action from our elected leaders, engaging with voters to support gun safety at the ballot box, and organizing their own communities every single day to prevent more gun tragedies.”
Virtually every news agency is noting in their reports the pistol was purchased on “Black Friday”—the day after Thanksgiving—by the suspect’s father. Neither the teen suspect or his parents are speaking to investigators and the parents have reportedly hired an attorney. Investigators were still trying to establish a motive.
When the suspect surrendered to responding lawmen, the pistol still carried seven rounds in the magazine. At least one other magazine has been recovered.
One possible demand to watch for: A push for a federal waiting period on the delivery of any handgun, and a “safe storage” requirement.
A second effort might be a renewed push for arbitrary magazine capacity limits [IR 10 round New Jersey] on the heels of a federal appeals court ruling Tuesday upholding the state’s ban on so-called “large-scale ammunition magazines,” as reported by the Los Angeles Times. Responding officers reportedly recovered two 15-round pistol magazines at the Michigan high school.
Another possibility would be quick action by Michigan lawmakers on Senate Bills 550-553 and House Bills 5066-5069. According to Bridge Michigan, they’re among dozens of measures stuck in legislative gridlock at the capitol in Lansing.
The report says these measures “would require anyone who stores a firearm in an area accessible by a minor to either secure the gun with a locking device, store it in a lock box or keep it ‘in a location that a reasonable person would believe is secure.’ Failure to do so would be a felony punishable by up to five years in prison if a minor used the gun to injure or kill anyone, including themselves. The legislation would also exempt ‘firearm safety devices’ from the state’s 6 percent sales and use tax, reducing the total cost.”
Sponsors of the bills were identified as Senators Rosemary Bayer of Beverly Hills, Jeff Irwin of Ann Arbor, Stephanie Chang of Detroit and Mallory McMorrow of Royal Oak, and Reps. Felica Brabec of Pittsfield and Mari Manoogian of Birmingham.
It is already illegal for a minor to carry a concealed handgun in the state, and it is likewise illegal to carry a concealed pistol into a school.
Killed in the shooting were 16-year-old Tate Myre, 14-year-old Hana St. Juliana, and 17-year-old Madisyn Baldwin. Reports say Myre heroically tried to disarm the suspect, only to be fatally wounded. He died in a police car while an officer was rushing to reach a hospital. There is already a movement to name the high school’s football field in Myre’s honor, with a petition supporting the suggestion already carrying nearly 50,000 signatures.
On Wednesday, a fourth student identified as 15-year-old Justin Shilling, died at a hospital in Pontiac, according to the Detroit Free Press.
See Related: Senate Democrats Try to Force Universal Background Check Bill, will GOP Fold?
About Dave Workman
Dave Workman is a senior editor at TheGunMag.com and Liberty Park Press, author of multiple books on the Right to Keep & Bear Arms, and formerly an NRA-certified firearms instructor.
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