KALAMAZOO, MI (WKZO AM/FM) – If you own a gun, you need to listen to this.
The verdict in the first Crumbley case has sent a message that you don’t have to pull the trigger to face charges, if a child gets loose with your gun.
But new state laws make it a lot easier for prosecutors to charge anyone who fails to safely store a gun.
Kalamazoo Public Safety Chief Dave Boysen says if a child just possesses your gun, it could result in a misdemeanor for the gun owner, and the penalties escalate from there.
Boysen says the prosecutors in the Crumbley case had to prove considerable negligence on the part of the parent to get a manslaughter conviction.
Boysen says his department is willing to come by and pick up any gun an adult wants to get rid of, especially those they find in a their child’s room, no questions asked.
Jennifer Crumbley, the mother of the shooter in the Oxford High School mass murder was convicted this month. Her husband faces trial next month, after a change of venue motion was dismissed on Friday.
The package of gun safety legislation was enacted following Ethan Crumbley’s killing of four other students and injuring seven others at Oxford High, School and a mass shooting at Michigan State University.
Public Act 16 passed the legislature and was signed by the governor last spring, and took effect on February 13th of this year.
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