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MSP opinion of County buildings & preemtive law

TheRabbitsHole

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Does the Michigan preemptive law prevent county/city from prohibiting firearms within county buildings if the person carrying the firearm is in full compliance with Michigan and federal law?

To my understanding the Preemptive law, does not allow lesser 'governments' to create oridances or laws that modify state and/or federal law.

Thank you.


Mr. xxxxxxxx,

A local unit of government can restrict firearms in their government buildings for security purposes. They cannot create criminal violations for those restrictions.


F/Lt. Matt Bolger
Michigan State Police
Executive Division
714 S. Harrison Rd
East Lansing, MI 48823
(517) 336-6266




(I probably could have worded my question a bit better... I guess I should have saved it as a document and re-proofed it a different day)
 

TheRabbitsHole

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I agree, unless there is perhaps a state or federal law that allows them to prohibit legal posession?


I sent him a response earlier this morning.




Thank you Matt, for taking the time to provide a response.

I have discussed this issue further with several associates and believe that your analysis may be incorrect.

FIREARMS AND AMMUNITION (EXCERPT)
Act 319 of 1990

123.1102 Regulation of pistols or other firearms. Sec. 2.
A local unit of government shall not impose special taxation on, enact or enforce any ordinance or regulation pertaining to, or regulate in any other manner the ownership, registration, purchase, sale, transfer, transportation, or possession of pistols or other firearms, ammunition for pistols or other firearms, or components of pistols or other firearms, except as otherwise provided by federal law or a law of this state.



I again thank you for your dealings with my question. I await your response.


Thank you
 

Venator

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ethernetweb wrote:
Does the Michigan preemptive law prevent county/city from prohibiting firearms within county buildings if the person carrying the firearm is in full compliance with Michigan and federal law?

To my understanding the Preemptive law, does not allow lesser 'governments' to create oridances or laws that modify state and/or federal law.

Thank you.


Mr. xxxxxxxx,

A local unit of government can restrict firearms in their government buildings for security purposes. They cannot create criminal violations for those restrictions.


F/Lt. Matt Bolger
Michigan State Police
Executive Division
714 S. Harrison Rd
East Lansing, MI 48823
(517) 336-6266




(I probably could have worded my question a bit better... I guess I should have saved it as a document and re-proofed it a different day)
He's wrong.
 

TheRabbitsHole

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Spoke to a local city Sgt today at the PD.

I asked him about the county buildings and Michigan preemption law, showing him a copy of it while conversating.

He stated that if a county or city wants to prohibit you from carrying in their buildings, they can. I asked him to define posession. He stated the reference to posession is "being on your property, such as your land or vehicle" and this law could not stop local governments from prohibiting people with firearms in their county buildings.

I then said, "Being that open carry is legal in Michigan, if I were to open carry how then is posession defined?"

He said this law does not pertain to the carrying of a firearm and that I was interperating it wrong.

He was being polite and discussing it with me in a professional and friendly way. I didn't quite no how to respond at this time, and told him it was a little research project I was doing. I ended the coversation there.

EDIT:
Oh yeah, and when I asked him to cite the municipal code that allowed local governments to make these regulations, he said "I believe that is up to you to find."

Guess I shouldn't have told him it was a research project.
LOL
 

DrTodd

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It appears that they believe that if they prohibit firearms but don't make a violation a criminal act, then they are OK... WOW... this is insane. Sounds like they are just parsing words. Perhaps we need to think about how we can get a clearly stated opinion on this from the AG or even Sgt. Deasy w/ MSP. This needs to be cleared up!
 

TheRabbitsHole

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Grand County, Colorado, USA
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DrTodd wrote:
It appears that they believe that if they prohibit firearms but don't make a violation a criminal act, then they are OK... WOW... this is insane. Sounds like they are just parsing words. Perhaps we need to think about how we can get a clearly stated opinion on this from the AG or even Sgt. Deasy w/ MSP. This needs to be cleared up!

This is exactly what I was thinking!

EDIT: Just noticed your wording compared to his. His says they cannot CREATE violations, not that it wasn't already an existing violation.
 

taxwhat

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DrTodd wrote:
It appears that they believe that if they prohibit firearms but don't make a violation a criminal act, then they are OK... WOW... this is insane. Sounds like they are just parsing words. Perhaps we need to think about how we can get a clearly stated opinion on this from the AG or even Sgt. Deasy w/ MSP. This needs to be cleared up!
X 2
 

dougwg

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Ok, first off Sgt. Thomas Deasy is no longer with that division. He is no working Internal Affairs.

He knows Matt Bolger and is in disagreement with him on this issue.

He feels that what Bolger may have meant is that they can tell you or post a sign if they like but there is nothing they can do about it.

So basically if you are toldthat you can'tbring your gun in or if you see a sign and do it anyway, they can't do anything about it.

I asked for him to have a chat with Bolger and see if he would send a more clear e-mail to theoriginal poster of this thread.


Deasy also said that this is exactly what MCRGO v Ferndale was about.

(Guns on city property including inside buildings)

http://www.mcrgo.org/mcrgo/view/news.asp?articleid=76&zoneid=100
 

TheRabbitsHole

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dougwg wrote:
Ok, first off Sgt. Thomas Deasy is no longer with that division. He is no working Internal Affairs.

He knows Matt Bolger and is in disagreement with him on this issue.

He feels that what Bolger may have meant is that they can tell you or post a sign if they like but there is nothing they can do about it.

So basically if you are toldthat you can'tbring your gun in or if you see a sign and do it anyway, they can't do anything about it.

I asked for him to have a chat with Bolger and see if he would send a more clear e-mail to theoriginal poster of this thread.


Very nice. Thank you.

So basically if you are toldthat you can'tbring your gun in or if you see a sign and do it anyway, they can't do anything about it.

LOL - After receiving the response I got from the Sgt. at the local PD, not sure I'd want to test that theory. (I'd love to be a patriot, but I can't afford any trouble. Finances are... non-existant)
 

TheRabbitsHole

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I just got a reply from Matt... sigh.


Mr. xxxxxxxxx,

If you have a concern with the actions of a local unit of government, you should contact the governing board of that body. MSP does not have any supervisory authority over other forms of government.

F/Lt. Matt Bolger
Michigan State Police
Executive Division
714 S. Harrison Rd
East Lansing, MI 48823
(517) 336-6266
Sorry for the 3x post. All things happening at different times =/
 

conservative85

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enact or enforce any ordinance or regulation pertaining to, or regulate in any other manner

w
hat part of or regulate in any other manner don't they understand!:cuss:

 

DrTodd

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So it appears that by F/Lt. Bolger taking over for Sgt. Deasy, we have lost the ability to get a clear interpretation of state law from the MSP. Although not necessarily "terrible", I think that all OCers/CCers should be concerned.
 

Michigander

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The only county building I can remember ever going to is Oakland County's.

They have no weapon rules and metal detectors at the entrance, which I believe they can do because a court room is in that building. Perhaps other county buildings can do the same because they have courts on the premises?
 

TheRabbitsHole

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Michigander wrote:
The only county building I can remember ever going to is Oakland County's.

They have no weapon rules and metal detectors at the entrance, which I believe they can do because a court room is in that building. Perhaps other county buildings can do the same because they have courts on the premises?

The rules may be in the ordinances. However I'm not sure if federal law states court room or court house. I would assume house to be the building in which the court rooms reside. Again, not sure what the exact law is, nor wether my assumption is correct.
 
G

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dougwg wrote:
So basically if you are toldthat you can'tbring your gun in or if you see a sign and do it anyway, they can't do anything about it.
[line]dougwg wrote here: http://opencarry.mywowbb.com/forum30/31399-4.html
"If you know there's a sign and you know that firearms are not welcome and you still enter then you ARE trespassing. Because you are being notified that you are not welcome."
[line]This is confusing.
 
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