A Michigan state panel on Monday voted unanimously to ban open-carry guns inside the state Capitol following the siege of the US Capitol and threats to storm the statehouse in Lansing, according to multiple reports.
Following the unrest in Washington, DC, the State Capitol Commission, which has jurisdiction over the State’s Capitol, has shifted position and approved the ban. The commission had often argued it wasn’t authorized to do so, The Detroit Free Press reported.
“Bullets are bullets,” state Sen. Dayna Polehanki told the Associated Press. “There is no reason any gun belongs in the Capitol.”
“It’s absurd, the world thinks it’s absurd,” said Polehanki, who argued that the ban still doesn’t go far enough. “It sickens me that this is even being considered as a viable option.”
Before the ban, Michigan was one of only three states that had no firearm regulations or security measures in place for its state Capitol, according to the Free Press.
Some lawmakers have been calling for a weapons ban since April after hundreds of protesters, some of whom were armed, marched into the Capitol to protest a stay-at-home order issued by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D). After the protest, Whitmer publicly backed a ban on guns inside the Capitol.
A few months later, federal authorities announced it had thwarted a plot by armed militia members to kidnap Whitmer.