According to Firearm Chronicles
After armed protestors poured into the state capitol building in Lansing, Michigan last week, several lawmakers responded by saying they wanted to see guns banned from the capitol complex. Now the state’s Attorney General has weighed in, telling lawmakers that the state’s Capitol Commission has the authority to enact a ban, without the need for the Legislature to approve any changes. [Attorney General Dana] Nessel’s letter comes as Democratic lawmakers are questioning the policy of allowing firearms in government buildings after they felt intimidated by armed protesters April 30 at the Capitol. Another protest is scheduled to take place May next Thursday at the Capitol.
Michigan is one of about a dozen states that allowed the public to generally carry firearms, either concealed or openly, inside capitol buildings, according to a 2013 report from the Michigan Information & Research Service (MIRS News). But Nessel said the mixture of loaded firearms, body armor and controversial debate is an “absurdly dangerous combination that would cause the heart of any security expert to skip a beat.” After a review of the commission’s legal authority, Nessel concluded the commission could ban firearms to “ensure the safety of the visiting public” as well as lawmakers. “…the commission is not constrained from enacting procedures limiting firearms at facilities under its control,” wrote the attorney general, who is a Democrat. “This is especially true where those procedures fulfill its mandate to ‘operate and manage the Michigan state capitol historic site’ in a fashion that ensures the safety of those civil servants who access the Capitol.” If Nessel truly believes that loaded firearms and controversial debate are a dangerous combination, then presumably she’d extend her belief that guns can be banned from the state capitol to include a ban on guns in the public square. Or maybe she’d rather legislators pass a law banning political speech while carrying a firearm.
Regardless of the AG’s opinion, the vice chairmain of the capitol commission says other attorneys have told them that the Legislature would have to change the firearms policy through a bill.