Michigan Democrats who have transformed gun laws in the state in the wake of multiple mass school shootings are now making it more difficult for individuals with convictions for misdemeanor domestic violence from gaining access to guns.
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed legislation Monday that prohibits individuals convicted of a misdemeanor related to domestic violence from possessing firearms for at least an eight-year-period. State law currently includes firearm restrictions for those with felonies related to domestic abuse, but no law had existed for misdemeanor domestic violence.
“These bills are based on a simple idea: if you have been found guilty in court for violently assaulting your partner, you should not be able to access a deadly weapon that you could use to further threatened, harm or kill them.” Whitmer said at a bill signing in Kalamazoo. “It’s just common sense.”
The eight-year ban for misdemeanor domestic violence convictions is only the latest firearm restriction added to Michigan law since Democrats took control of both chambers of the state Legislature and retained the governor’s office last election.
The federal government only has authority to regulate under a certain set of defined powers. To cite the 10th Amendment:
This is saying that any power that isn’t explicitly granted to the federal government is instead held by the states. So, there are things that would be unconstitutional for the federal government to do because that power is reserved for state governments. This gets murky nowadays because that list of federal powers is interpreted very broadly (the power to regulate interstate commerce particularly, which is now said to apply to essentially anything that might plausibly affect the economies of multiple states), but the legal principle is still there.