The MSU community has suffered severe loss and trauma. My heart is with each and every person on campus in East Lansing and all those across Michigan who love a Spartan.
As a policymaker, my first inclination is to discuss long overdue policies and reforms, because it is the only answer I have to “how can I help.”
To my many constituents across West Bloomfield, Commerce and the Lakes who have already begun to communicate with me about these reforms, let me assure you: The Michigan Legislature WILL act. Soon. I will move heaven and earth to pass critical gun safety legislation, including universal background checks, red flag laws and secure storage requirements. In addition, I strongly support enacting limitations on high-capacity magazines, ammunition, ghost guns, and restricting sales and import of assault rifles in Michigan.
While it is nearly impossible to guarantee that any new policy enacted would have prevented any given tragedy, our goal of legislating gun violence reform is to narrow windows of opportunity for gun violence to occur. That is the standard for action, and you can sure as hell bet I’m going to fight for it.
Because, growing up in West Bloomfield’s Jewish community, I learned about the principle of “pikuach nefesh.” It’s the idea that if you save one life, you save the whole world. That is why we must do everything in our power to enact critical gun safety laws in Michigan. Because if they can save one life, they can save the whole world.
During my time working at the Oakland County Prosecutor’s Office, I learned that most people don’t wake up in the morning and decide to commit a crime. Poverty, unemployment, mental health, trauma and abuse all play a role. In order to build safe and resilient communities across Michigan, we must surge resources to address the underlying issues that provide the conditions for violence to occur.
The root of most violence is alienation. The solution to violence is connection. That is why, as Vice Chair of the Behavioral Health Subcommittee in the Michigan House, I will move heaven and earth to strengthen access to vital mental health care for kids, seniors and everyone in between.
Duty and conscience compel us to act swiftly, decisively and without regard to partisanship in order to protect our communities from the savage terror of gun violence. Never again in the state of Michigan will we suffer this kind of mass shooting.
In the name of Brian Fraser, Arielle Anderson, and Alexandria Verner — and those we have lost in Michigan to gun violence, we cannot and will not fail.
May the memories of all we have lost to gun violence be a blessing to all who knew and loved them, and may their memories be a revolution to finally compel change. Once and for all.