Category: Michigan

Michigan Supreme Court drops interest in marijuana bust

Legislation Liberty Michigan

After hearing arguments, the state Supreme Court has dropped interest in a case involving police tactics during a marijuana bust in southwestern Michigan. The issue was whether deputies in St. Joseph County acted legally when they walked to the rear of a home and suspected there was marijuana inside. Moments earlier, they had knocked at a different door and got no answer.

Read more at WLKM’s News Site.

Can we decriminalize marijuana use already?  The fact that the police were even investigating a home where they suspected marijuana was inside is just a waste of police resources. There are just so many other things that I would prefer that police spend their limited resources on than this. Not only that but we could free up a lot of space in our over crowded detention centers by eliminating a large potion of non-violent “criminal” offenders.

Having said that I don’t know anything about this case other then what I read in this article so maybe my perspective is out of context with (all) the facts. However, even if that is the case I still believe that marijuana use should be decriminalized and we should rethink how we deal with non-violent crimes.

MSP First to Get Statewide Approval for Police Drones

Legislation Michigan
Police Drone - Michigan State Police

This is the Aeryon SkyRanger, the drone that Michigan State Police can now deploy anywhere in the state. (Credit: Aeryon Labs Inc.)

Discover Magazine posted this article on their blog Michigan is First to Get Statewide Approval for Police Drones. According to the article the idea is to use them for search and rescue as well as accident reconstruction. The state police are now, based on the FAA’s approval allowed to use them anywhere in the state. They come equipped with a high definition camera and can stay in the air for an hour on a single charge.

What could go wrong? Surely not the addition of lethal weapons. Right? Read more about it here.

6 facts about Michigan open carry and schools

Amendment 2 Legislation Michigan

Mlive has a list of 6 surprising facts concerning Michigan’s Open Carry law and carrying on school properties.

  1. Open carry is legal in Michigan schools for individuals with valid concealed pistol licenses. It is illegal for an individual without a concealed pistol license to carry a firearm on school property.
  2. People with a CPL cannot carry a concealed firearm on school property. Open carry is the only option available to them if they wish to carry a firearm.
  3. State law MCL 28.425o, prohibits CPL holders from carrying concealed weapons in nine designated pistol-free zones, including schools. However, the law allows parents or legal guardians dropping off or picking up a child to keep a firearm inside their vehicle.

Those are the top 3. Read the rest at the Mlive’s site 6 facts about Michigan open carry law and guns in schools.

Concealed Pistol License applications rose sharply in St Joseph County for 2013

Amendment 2 Michigan Three Rivers

Concealed Pistol License (CPL) applications in St. Joseph County have risen sharply in 2013, according to the Michigan State Police.

 

Last year, MSP received an average of 481 applications for permits and approved 463 of those for licensure. So far this year, there have been an average of 626 applications received and 523 approved, according to MSP.

 

“Within the past year, records have been broken as far as the number of background checks done for the purchase of firearms,” said Debra Smith, manager for the Michigan State Police firearms records unit. “We have also seen an increase in the number of people that apply for or receive concealed pistol licenses.”

No surprises here. I think this just says that St Joseph County is keeping pace with the rest of the country where conceal carry is legal.

The article in the Three Rivers Commercial also mentions that the Three Rivers Police Dept. offers a CCW (CPL) class but it doesn’t provide any additional information about it. If you know any specifics please post them to the comments and I will update this article later. See the entire article here.

As a side note: If you have even wondered which states allow concealed carry and more specifically which states honor Michigan’s CPL I have included a graphic from the Michigan Coalition of Responsible Gun Owners below.

CPL Reciprocity

At present, States shaded in blue will not honor the Michigan CPL.

Check out their site for more Gun Related News.

Liberty1st Outreach

Liberty Liberty1st Forum Michigan Politics

Lately I have noticed a lot of web traffic coming from other South West Michigan Cities outside of the Saint Joseph County area, which is where the Liberty1st forum was started and has spent most of its focus on. And while the current L1 forum doesn’t have anything close to the kind of traffic it was getting two or three years ago (from the old forum) there is still enough interest to keep it going. However I am starting to wonder if I should consider outreach to, at least, the counties surrounding Saint Joseph County.

The cities I see the most traffic from are Vicksburg, Schoolcraft, and Portage, which are all in Kalamazoo County. If you are one of the visitors from those cities or any of the city in the area and would like a forum specific to your area let me know with a comment to this post.

Michigan 2011 House Joint Resolution C (Extend term limits )

Legislation Michigan

Introduced by Rep. Sharon Tyler (R) on January 13, 2011, to place before voters in the next general election a Constitutional amendment to revise the term limits on legislators. Currently, representatives may only serve three terms of two-years each, and senators may only serve two terms of four-years each. The bill would allow legislators to mix-and-match these House and Senate terms in any combination for a total of not more than 14 years in the legislature. The measure is cosponsored by Reps. Greg MacMaster, Peter MacGregor, Al Pscholka, Matt Lori, Kevin Cotter, Kenneth Kurtz, Mike Shirkey, Mike Callton, Ken Yonker, Gail Haines, Hugh D. Crawford, Kurt Damrow, and Wayne A. Schmidt, all Republicans.

See Michigan Votes for more info and comments.