Local gun store owner speaks on new gun laws

BAY CITY, Mich. (WNEM) – After new gun bills were signed into law on Thursday, April 13, a local gun store owner weighed in on how the legislation will impact his business.

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed new gun safety legislation on Thursday on the two-month anniversary of the deadly mass shooting at MSU, which jump-started the effort in Lansing.

Thursday’s signing was the cementing of the first significant gun safety legislation in Michigan in decades, and lawmakers aren’t done yet.

Glenn Duncan, the owner of Duncan’s Outdoor Shop in Bay City, weighed in on the subject. He said while he agrees gun safety is a good thing, the legislation misses the mark.

“They keep talking about this new law is going to stop what happened at Michigan State and stuff. Well, it’s not, and that’s the sad part,” Duncan said.

That new law is the red flag gun law that the State House approved Thursday. While that remains a work in progress, new laws signed Thursday will require universal background checks and safe storage measures for guns.

“The bad part, you’re going to have a lot of people against this, is that this is what happened to other countries that lost all their guns,” Duncan said.

Duncan said he understands the need for safety, but he said the new law creates new complications.

“For gun shops, there’s words that we’re supposed to do it for $25 or $35, there’s no way we can. And when we take a gun in, we have to log it into our books, we have to do all this paperwork, we have to call next and make sure you have a background check. Again, we’re doing a background check on who? The person that’s normal, the person that’s honest. That’s not our problem,” Duncan said.

Duncan said the real issue that needs to be addressed is mental health.

“Red flag laws, again, do not touch mental. Red flag laws, the second part of it, if you get mad at your boyfriend, mad at your husband, and you say, ‘He’s crazy, he needs to have his guns taken away,’ they’re going to come take them away,” Duncan said. “Getting them back is almost impossible.”

Whitmer has said if the red flag legislation passes both chambers, she will sign it into law.