By Katie Finkbeiner
A new firearm safety bill by Sen. Jon Bumstead, R-North Muskegon, is intended to bring gun education into schools for students between 6th and 12th grade.
When crafting the bill, Bumstead worked with the Department of Education and agreed there would be no live rounds or weapons brought onto school grounds during training.
Using instructors certified with hunting licenses through the Department of Natural Resources, the 10-hour program would teach safe storage, handling and cleaning of weapons and ammunition.
According to Bumstead, “People need to know gun safety practices, regardless of if they hunt or not, or whether they shoot guns or don’t shoot guns.”
“At least they want to learn about gun safety. This is the program that can teach some of that and hopefully it can save lives,” he said.
There were 1,117 deaths from firearm injuries reported in Michigan between September 2023 and August 2024, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Justin Heinze, who has a doctorate in education psychology, is the director of school safety at the University of Michigan Institute for Firearm Injury Prevention.
Heinze said safe storage is imperative to prevent injuries and said easy access to loaded weapons poses an additional risk in homes with guns.
He said parents are often surprised that young children know where guns are kept and “might have more access than parents realize.”
As for where instructors would come from, Bumstead said local organizations involved with hunting and firearm instruction will most likely teach the programs.
“A lot of local gun clubs will have instructors that I think will be willing to come in,” he said. “Also, you’ll have some educators that are instructors as well. You’ll see that more in the Northern (Michigan) schools.”
Bumstead said the sessions would be free because each instructor’s organization would underwrite the lessons.
Bumstead also said the program could teach youth about conservation and potentially increase wildlife education funding because hunting license fees go towards conservation.
“Over the last 30 years in Michigan, our hunting numbers have gone down,” said Bumstead. “We’re just trying to get young people outdoors a little bit more, and this might have them get outside a little bit more.”
The bill has bipartisan support with co-sponsors including Sens. Stephanie Chang, D-Detroit; Roger Hauck, R-Mount Pleasant; John Damoose, R-Harbor Springs; Rick Outman, R-Six Lakes and Michele Hoitenga, R-Manton.
Chang, a member of the Education Committee, said the program would be beneficial to all Michigan residents.
“Firearm safety in general is important for people to learn regardless of where they are,” said Chang.
“There’s certainly a number of gun owners in my district and I’m married to a gun owner. Ensuring more people have more information about gun safety is important, in addition to passing laws related to common-sense gun violence prevention,” she said.
According to Bumstead, the training would be for middle and high school students because it would be easier for interested schools to add the program to the physical education curriculum for that age group.
Chang said, “Making sure that young people, if they have firearms in their homes, are aware of what the laws are and firearm safety is important.”
As for concerns about student mental health tied with gun violence, Chang said she supports funding for mental health resources and programs addressing gun violence.
U-M’s Heinze said he doesn’t know if “offering training around safety would make students less concerned of a person bringing a firearm to school.”
Still, he sees advantages in getting more information to families.
“If there’s a chance some of this information gets home to parents about how firearms should be stored safely, which means locked and stored separately from ammunition, that could have an impact on the number of students who end up bringing a weapon to school,” he said.
The bill is waiting in the Senate Education Committee.