Date: Tue, 19 Oct 1999 14:09:26 -0400 Subject: Michigan Gun Control
History

Michigan Gun Control History

One of the issues addressed at the 14th annual Gun Right Policy
Conference (GRPC) in St Louis Mo. the weekend of Sept. 17 - 19...

Michigan's Struggle Jim Church, a former NRA board member and
member of Brass Roots Inc. in Michigan,

- snip -

Church said that Michigan's present-day restrictions on concealed
carry resulted from an incident in 1925, when a black doctor and
his family were defending their home from a mob. A shot was fired
from the house and a member of the mob was killed. All the people
in the house were charged with murder. After the trial ended in a
hung jury, and another individual was acquitted. the Ku Klux Klan
worked for the passage of a package of gun laws which included
handgun registration. handgun purchase permits. and a
county-by-county board made up of three people; the sheriff; the
prosecutor and a representative of the state police with a "may
issue" standard. The purpose was to keep firearms out of the hands
of black people Church said, "We still have that today. I like to
say to those who defend the status quo,'Why are you defending the
position of the Ku Klux Klan?' " Church also reported on recent
struggles to enact a more equitable concealed carry law Church
since 1994 one  modeled after the one in Florida, but said that
passage of concealed carry reform keeps falling victim to political
intrigues.

However, Church concluded, several Michigan counties have begun
following a "shall  issue" policy for concealed carry permits.

- Cut From Above -

Jim Church recounted for the conference the worst mass murder of
school children in US history, which happened in 1927 in Church's
home town of Bath. MI. A disaffected school board treasurer
dynamited not only a church, but a school, killing the perpetrator,
his wife, the school principal, two townspeople and 38 students.

The New Gun Week News  Oct 1999