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East Lansing lawyer puts to rest open carry issue

budlight

Regular Member
Joined
Sep 7, 2009
Messages
454
Location
Wyandotte, Michigan, USA
The lawyer who commented for this article isn't too bright.....

http://www.lansingstatejournal.com/...ast-Lansing-lawyer-puts-rest-open-carry-issue

Schneider: East Lansing lawyer puts to rest open carry issue

EAST LANSING - Now that we've all accepted the premise that it's legal in Michigan to carry guns openly pretty much everywhere, East Lansing lawyer Shannan Kane steps forward to shout, "Drop 'em."

Until Feb. 11, Kane worked for the Michigan Legislature's Legislative Analysis Unit. Kane says flatly: "Open carry is NOT legal in Michigan."
This will come as a surprise to many - even Lansing police, who told me just a week ago that officers would not (and could not) arrest members of Michigan Open Carry who were bringing guns into the downtown branch of the Capital Area District Library.
Why? Because, as Capt. Mike Yankowski put it, "State law trumps our local ordinance." State law singles out the places where guns can't be carried - schools, day care centers, churches, etc. - leaving many to conclude that places not specifically named are gun friendly, so to speak.
(As it turned it, CADL got a temporary restraining order that, for the moment, bans guns from the library).
As I pointed out in my Feb. 18 column, another state law - MCL 750.234e - outlaws "brandishing a firearm in public." Cops, hunters, target shooters, and gunsmiths (or people taking a gun for repairs, or buying/selling guns) are exempt.
That's the law on which Kane pins her argument. She seems to have a good point because, as I noted on Feb. 18, "brandish" means, among other things, to "display ostentatiously," and it doesn't get any more ostentatious than carrying a shotgun into a library.
"Open carry enthusiasts have convinced many people," Kane wrote, "that they have a right to open carry virtually anywhere in Michigan because 'there is no law against it.'"
But, citing MCL 750.234e, Kane wrote: "People (minus the exceptions mentioned above) who display firearms in public commit the misdemeanor crime of brandishing a firearm in public ..."
The law, Kane noted, doesn't specifically define "brandish."
"Absent a definition," Kane wrote, "courts look to legislative history and to the dictionary. Both ... make clear that the legislature intended to ban openly-displayed firearms. (It) provided guidance on what is ostentatious and unlawful by including five exceptions to the ban, and specifying that except in those situations, a person may not brandish a firearm in public."
She added: "Open-carry enthusiasts rely on an attorney general opinion ... that a reserve peace officer with a visible holstered weapon is NOT committing the crime of brandishing.
"However, no Michigan court has ruled that a member of the general public is free to open carry. While a reserve peace officer's holstered weapon may not be ostentatiously displayed, the firearms brought to the Capital Area District Library in downtown Lansing by ... open carry fanatics certainly were. In my view, open carry enthusiasts are violating state law, and CADL deserves praise for standing up to them."
Call John Schneider at 377-1175, send a fax to 377-1298 or e-mail jschneid@lsj.com.
 

mastiff69

Regular Member
Joined
Nov 11, 2007
Messages
573
Location
Kalamazoo, Michigan, United States
That Law-Yer needs to go back to their school and ask for a refund as they got ripped off,
or they slept thru the classroom study course...

They forgot to read that nasty sheet of paper The Constitution OH OH thats right libs only use the parts that they like, the rest isn't important !
 

Michigander

Regular Member
Joined
Aug 24, 2007
Messages
4,818
Location
Mulligan's Valley
Not too bright, nor too classy. If she wants to call out actions she finds to be low class or immoral, she should at least have the sense to carefully think of polite things to say. Otherwise, in the eyes of people who agree with her she's stooping to a low she shouldn't be at, and of course in our eyes she's making it look like she's both poorly educated, and a raging, hateful zealot.

She says no Michigan court has ruled in favor of open carry, well, other than when they have. Theszerdi, evil creamsicle, whats his name in Grand Haven, and I believe I'm forgetting a few more. And of course plenty more cases have been dropped by courts well before they ever went to trial.

Perhaps she should be invited here to discuss these things with us.
 

Michigander

Regular Member
Joined
Aug 24, 2007
Messages
4,818
Location
Mulligan's Valley
Worth a shot. She has a linkedin account. If anyone has a linkedin account and can contact her, please do ask her to register here and discuss these things with us. It would be really nice, perhaps even highly educational to have a publicly recorded conversation on this matter with her.

It is nothing more than a matter of fact that no one in the state knows more about gun laws than we here do cumulatively, and if she thinks she can prove us wrong, well I'd like to see it, because as I always say I keep my mind open, and if she really wants to try to establish a precedent for OC being brandishing in spite of the AG opinion, the state and federal constitutions, and recent SCOTUS cases, maybe she can teach us something. If she refuses to discuss this issue with us, considering that she's the only person who feels this way I've ever heard of, at least among people with a legal background, I would take it as a form of admitting she knows she's wrong.

If she refuses to publicly discuss it with us, that by itself would deserve a press release.
 

stainless1911

Banned
Joined
Dec 19, 2009
Messages
8,855
Location
Davisburg, Michigan, United States
I don't use linkedin, but I sent her the following email, we'll see if she's willing to meet us here.

Mrs. Kane, it has come to my attention that you seem to think that open carry is illegal, so I wanted to invite you to discuss this issue with the most educated people in the state regarding this issue. You can enter the discussion by entering our site, it's free, the discussion can be had on the thread in the following link, or you are always free to start your own thread topic on the issue. I hope to see you there, sincerely, stainless1911.
 

detroit_fan

Regular Member
Joined
Mar 27, 2009
Messages
1,172
Location
Monroe, Michigan, USA
So what is stopping some liberal judge form agreeing with this lady? It's not like they always rule according to the law. We had 4 SCOTUS judges vote no in Heller and McDonald? Do we know what judge this is going before?
 

DrTodd

Michigan Moderator
Joined
Jun 20, 2008
Messages
3,272
Location
Hudsonville , Michigan, USA
I posted this on the LSJ website:

Hmm, Ms Kane must have chosen to ignore AG Opinion 3158 and it's reference to a MICHIGAN SUPREME COURT OPINION written by the late Wm. Potter. In this Opinion, it was stated that a law, in that case the "concealed weapons law", so construed to not allow for carrying a firearm openly would "amount to an infringement of the constitutional right of citizens to have and bear arms, since it would be impossible for one to have and bear about his person a pistol or weapon" without a license.
But, I am pretty sure Ms Kane knew that this information was there and just chose to ignore it because she thinks herself above any legal authority. Publicly espouses "personal beliefs" about what she thinks the law should be when asked what the law is indicates that Ms Kane believes her thoughts somehow trump a decision from the Michigan Supreme Court regarding the issue, not to mention subsequent AG opinions. Sorry Ms Kane, YOUR opinion absent citation to authority is just that: an UNFOUNDED opinion.
 

Golden Eagle

Regular Member
Joined
Jul 3, 2009
Messages
253
Location
SW Michigan
I posted this on the LSJ website:

Hmm, Ms Kane must have chosen to ignore AG Opinion 3158 and it's reference to a MICHIGAN SUPREME COURT OPINION written by the late Wm. Potter. In this Opinion, it was stated that a law, in that case the "concealed weapons law", so construed to not allow for carrying a firearm openly would "amount to an infringement of the constitutional right of citizens to have and bear arms, since it would be impossible for one to have and bear about his person a pistol or weapon" without a license. ...

I had read that. Well said.
 
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