GRAND RAPIDS, Mich — There's a new proposal to implement a seven-day waiting period for all pistol purchases in Michigan.
The lawmaker who plans to introduce the bill says it's just part of a larger package of bills we could see at the statehouse.
"We're not trying to take away guns here. We're not trying to reduce your ability to recreate. We're talking about a seven-day waiting period that can save lives," Rep. Rachel Hood (D–Grand Rapids) told FOX 17.
Steve Dulan is a Cooley Law professor at Western Michigan University, where some of his course material revolves around gun laws.
Dulan said there's no need for a waiting period because of the National Instant Background Check System.
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"The way you get prohibited is you commit a felony, or you are diagnosed with a serious mental illness as a danger to yourself or others, that sort of thing. And you become a prohibited person, and everybody else can buy a gun," Dulan said.
In her proposed bill, Hood cites a 2017 study that shows that wait periods can significantly reduce the rate of gun homicide and suicide rates. It's something she says could have impacted what happened in Oxford.
Investigators say the accused gunman's parents bought the 15-year-old the weapon he allegedly used just four days before the attack.
"Had Mr. Crumbley, the parent of the shooter, been required to wait seven days, the work of the professionals in the school could have been completed, and the impulses and, you know, mental health issues that the shooter identified could have been addressed," Hood said.
Meanwhile, Dulan is also monitoring the Oxford investigation but says the bill doesn't fit in this case.
"So, I don't see how one more law would have helped; I don't see how a waiting period fits into this fact pattern. To me, it just looks like political opportunism."
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