Camilleri: Cancel AR-15 giveaway in Brownstown event
State Rep. Darrin Camilleri, D-Brownstown, is calling on Michigan Leadership Group to cancel AR-15 giveaway in the aftermath of Uvalde school shooting.
Camilleri asked the Michigan Leadership Group, a local conservative political organization, to forgo their planned AR-15 giveaway, and is demanding that Michigan Republicans cancel their plans to attend.
The firearm giveaway was announced as a promotional tactic for an upcoming “Meet Your Candidates” event, slated to take place in Brownstown Township on June 5th.
Flyers for the event stated that Republican candidates for the Michigan State Senate, State House, U.S. Congress as well as the Michigan Board of Education would be in attendance.
The AR-15 is a military style long gun, and is the same make and model of weapon that was used to murder 21 people, including 19 children, in Uvalde Texas Monday. Camilleri released the following statement:
“I find it morally reprehensible and downright offensive that a local political organization is using an AR-15 giveaway as a marketing tactic for a ‘Family Friendly’ event during the same week that the same weapon was used to murder dozens of children and their teachers.
It’s disrespectful to the families of those who were lost and completely inappropriate – I call on the Michigan Leadership Group to cancel this giveaway and to publicly apologize for their actions. To the Republican candidates who are planning to attend this event – all I have to say is this: have some decency and stay home.”
Camilleri also gave a floor speech imploring the Michigan legislature to approve an amendment that would require universal background checks for firearms purchases in Michigan – the amendment was promptly gaveled down by Republican leadership without a floor vote.
The following is part of the speech Camilleri made on the floor of Michigan House of Representatives:
“Madam Speaker, it’s happened again: 21 people have died during a mass shooting at a school: 19 kids and two adults.
(The) mass shooting in Uvalde, Texas hits home for all Americans but especially Latinos. My great-grandmother first came to Texas from Mexico. My great-grandfather and his family were in Texas from when it was Mexico. Texas holds a special place in the heart of our community.
The commonplace of floor speeches recognizing tragedies that have occurred at another school, another supermarket, or another place of worship has created an infuriating and numbing routine: a mass shooting happens, overwhelming news coverage, recycled speeches and hand-wringing, ‘thoughts and prayers,’ and NO action.
We are five days away from the six-month anniversary of the school shooting right here in Michigan, in Oxford. Last night, Oxford’s School Board had a moment of silence for the victims in Texas. They’re still grieving. What kind of dystopian timeline are we living in when this is what our communities are relegated to?
What have we done to make elementary students safer from gun violence? What have we done to make school and high school students safer from gun violence?
As it stands now, the weapon more than likely used in Uvalde can be purchased in Michigan without a background check. Without a background check! A weapon that when fired at another human being - at an elementary school, again - doesn’t require a background check to be purchased, but what it does do is it requires DNA swabs to identify victims. I do not know all of you, but when I saw that video of parents going back and forth getting their DNA swabbed to see which of the dead children was theirs - I cried. We all cried. Because the impact of that moment was so real.
HB 4869 - that the Representative from the 55th District introduced - would require universal background checks on all guns purchased in the State of Michigan. Something that nearly 90% of Americans and Michiganders support. Ninety percent!
I’m begging you: Help us protect our students. Help us protect our teachers. Protect our communities. Please vote yes on this amendment to expand background checks, and tie-bar these bills. Thank you.”