April O'Neil / news@WHMI.com

Michigan legislators took their first steps earlier this month toward passing a sweeping gun safety package. Now, Livingston County Congresswoman Elissa Slotkin is making a push to pass the Gun Violence Prevention Research Act- a proposed bill that would fund millions of dollars toward CDC research on firearms safety and preventing gun violence.

In a Wednesday press conference, Representative Slotkin spoke alongside students who survived the MSU Shooting in February and the Oxford High School Shooting in 2021. Both mass shooting events happened within 15 months of one another. Slotkin said the frequency of these events means legislators need to move quickly to ensure the safety of our students.

“Preventing more gun violence in our schools and on our streets is a matter of homeland security – not politics. These bills take concrete actions to make it harder for people to commit acts of violence with a gun. As elected officials, our most basic responsibility is to protect our children from the things that are truly harming them, and this package of legislation will help us save lives by addressing some of the root causes of the gun violence epidemic,” said Slotkin.

The bill was first introduced in 2021 following the Oxford High School shooting, but did not receive approval from the U.S. Senate.

Slotkin’s reintroduction of the legislation comes less than a week after the school shooting in Nashville, Tennessee that killed 3 students and 3 staff members. On the same day as the Nashville shooting, a federal judge approved a legal settlement lowering the minimum age to carry handguns without a permit in Tennessee from 21 to 18. That came just two years after a new law set the age at 21.

The Gun Violence Prevention Research Act, also supported by Senator Ed Markey of Massachusetts, vows to fund 50 million dollars every fiscal year for the next 5 years toward CDC research into gun safety and preventing violence altogether. Slotkin compared the legislation to the advent of car seats in the 1970s and 1980s, when the number one cause of death for children was auto accidents. In 2023, the number one cause of death for children is gun violence.

“When something is the number one killer of people under 21, I think it deserves to be researched and understood in a scientific way,” said Slotkin.

Earlier this month, the Michigan Senate voted along party lines for a red-flag law that would allow guns to temporarily be removed from people with potentially violent behavior. It also passed measures requiring anyone purchasing a rifle or shotgun to undergo a background check, which is currently only required for handgun purchases, and to store guns safely where they cannot be accessed by minors.