GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Fox 17 caught up with Attorney General Dana Nessel Thursday to speak about the lawsuit against the Governor and the status of guns in our capitol.
On the same day that another rally was held at the capitol, we asked her about guns being brought to those events, and whether that may change.
Nessel told us that while she is not a member of the "Michigan Capitol Commission", she does advise them.
"I advised them that it is perfectly legal for them to ban firearms from the capitol should they wish to do so, and I urged them to do that because, I thought from a safety and security standpoint it was incredibly important that we not have armed gunmen who were roving around the senate gallery threatening our state legislators," Nessel told Fox 17.
On Monday, the commission decided to delay any formal ruling and study the issue further through a sub-committee.
Nessel added that she is "gravely concerned and it seems very clear to me that the state senate majority leader and house speaker, who also could control this, have no interest in banning firearms from the state capitol."
On the day before oral arguments are set to be held on the State House and Senate Legislature's lawsuit against the Governor's "Stay Home Stay Safe" orders, the Attorney General weighed in on Wisconsin's ruling by their State Supreme Court Wednesday, declaring their "Stay Home" order invalid.
She pointed out that we have different state laws, our constitution reads differently and that the governor's powers are different between the two states.
Nessel said, "I'm not suggesting that were going to see a similar outcome here, but I will say that the polling I've seen is that a good 72% of Michiganders understand the reason for the governor's orders and I think that these decisive and swift measures that she's taken are there for one reason, and one reason only, and that is to save lives."
Nessel pointed out that she has seen projections that indicate without our "Stay Home Stay Safe" orders being implemented, Michigan could have seen nearly double the number of deaths that it already has.