On the one year anniversary of the fatal shooting at Oxford High School — a tragedy that left four students dead, seven people injured, and a community in pain — some are left wondering what's been done in Lansing to prevent another mass shooting from occurring.
At 12:51 p.m. Wednesday, the state of Michigan observed a moment of silence, marking one year since shots rang out at a high school in rural Michigan, shattering the lives of a community forever.
At Michigan's Capitol, there's a silence that's been ringing for months. Since June, Michigan's full-time lawmakers have spent less than a week in session, with no clear reason given by leadership for the absence.
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In the time that lawmakers have walked the halls of the Capitol, gun safety bills that some Republicans said they'd support — including red flag laws and gun storage requirements — sit untouched, still locked in committee.
“We’ve been pushing them for years – it’s ridiculous that we’ve got to the point where it’s this horrifying and still not a hearing, not a vote," Sen. Rosemary Bayer, a Democrat who represents Oxford, said.
There have been steps taken in the wake of Oxford to respond to the tragedy. Over the summer, leaders in the legislature came to an agreement with Gov. Gretchen Whitmer's office to make some school safety investments in the 2023 education budget, including $460 million for school resource officers and mental health funding.
Even after Michigan leaders saw gun violence reach the state's own students, however, some lawmakers say that 365 days later, there still has not been enough done.
Since she entered the Senate, and long before her own family members were trapped in Oxford High on that November day, Bayer has advocated for gun safety legislation that would implement basic reforms seen in other states. When tragedy struck in her home district, Bayer said she had hope that it would move Republican leadership to at least granter her bills hearings.
“It’s amazing that they would go through that, that they would sit there and watch what happened at Oxford, and still refuse to take any action, still say that this is not the right time,” she said.
In January, House Speaker Jason Wentworth, R-Farwell, created a bipartisan school safety task force that would research and provide a report outlining plans to address school threats.
Co-chair Scott VanSingel expressed satisfaction with the group's bipartisan efforts, calling it some of the best of what the legislature can do and proof that "government can be efficient."
“Really, we wanted to take a step back and say how do we prevent these tragedies, not what do we do when one happens,” VanSingel, R-Grant, said.
He said the task force quickly narrowed in on mental health as a core issue to address, with the only disagreement between members coming from the reach and impact of any potential firearm-related bills.
Ultimately, the task force did not recommend any gun safety legislation, though VanSingel said there was support among some Republicans on basic gun reform bills, like red flag laws and gun storage.
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The task force, made up of four Republicans and four Democrats, spent months meeting with experts in law enforcement, psychology, education, and interviewing family members of Oxford victims. In June, a series of recommendations for addressing mental health, data sharing, and school hardening were introduced, including at least a dozen pieces of bipartisan legislation.
Since the bills were introduced, not one has moved out of committee or received a vote.
“I’m leaving quite frustrated, honestly,” VanSingel said about the lack of movement on the bills, which he attributed to the lack of session days. “We’ve put so much work into this, literally kids’ lives are at stake here.”
VanSingel said there was frustration amongst representatives who were anxious to come back to Lansing to work, but that there was no clear reasoning from leadership on why one of the nation's few full-time legislatures was only working on a part-time basis.
The House task force isn't the first of its kind, with a similar school safety task force created under Gov. Rick Snyder in 2018. That task force submitted 29 recommendations for different agencies to implement. It's unclear how many of those recommendations have become policy in the four years since.
With only two session days scheduled in the House for the rest of the year, VanSingel said he has accepted that the task force will not see any of its bills be voted on before this legislature ends and half of the task force members leave for good.
It is unclear what will happen once Democrats take over both chambers in January, but some leaders have indicated they are interested in taking significant steps toward passing gun safety legislation.
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VanSingel said the final school safety task force report should be ready in the coming weeks.
The office of Speaker Wentworth did not return a request for comment on the lack of session progress by news time.
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