Michigan Senate Republicans block vote on gun safety bills  

Michigan Senate Democrats tried to force a vote on gun safety legislation Wednesday after the bills languished in committee.

The bills would establish gun storage standards and make it a violation if a person’s firearm were used in a crime by a minor.

The move by Democrats comes one day after a teenager in Texas killed 19 children and two adults at an elementary school — and six months after the deadly attack at Oxford High School.

Democratic Sen. Jeremy Moss called on his Republican colleagues to limit easy access to guns.

“I’m a generation where we were the first to endure these school shootings,” Moss said. “And now we have squandered this opportunity for more than a generation and now it’s our kids that are dealing with this problem. Let’s act.”

Senate Republicans were unified in blocking the vote.

Republican Sen. Ken Horn said families were still grieving and voting on the bills would be “way too early.”

“They don’t give a they don’t give a flying frog what we do here in the Senate right now,” Horn said. “They’re not paying attention to us. It’s way too early to sign bill numbers to their grief. Let’s have an honest conversation but then let’s have an honest conversation.”

The GOP-led Legislature has not advanced any gun control bill out of committee since they’ve been in power.

Senate Democrats used a procedural maneuver to try to pull the bills from committee and put them up for a vote in the full Senate.

Democratic Sen. Rosemary Bayer represents Oxford, where four students were killed last November in a mass shooting. She says something must be done to stop easy access to firearms.

“This is urgent,” Bayer said. “Every day we don’t take action we are choosing guns over children. Enough is enough. No more prayers, no more thoughts, no more inaction now.”

The gun storage bills were sent back to committee where they are unlikely to get another hearing or vote.