Livingston Co. Board Vows Not To Enforce Any Potential 'Reg Flag' Laws

LIVINGSTON COUNTY, MI — Livingston County Republicans passed a resolution Monday vowing to disregard any potential law that will allow officials to take away firearms from a person deemed as a threat to themselves or others.

In Monday's unanimous vote, the all-Republican board declared themselves as a "constitutional county" and vowed not to fund any public resources for "the sole purposes of enforcing any statute, law, rule, order, or regulation that restricts the rights of any law-abiding citizen affirmed by the Second Amendment."

The measure, titled "Resolution by the Livingston County Board of Commissioners in Support of the Second Amendment of the US Constitution and the Michigan Constitution" also encourages the county sheriff and prosecutor to use discretion in enforcing those laws.

The red flag legislation passed the Michigan legislature and is awaiting Gov. Gretchen Whitmer's signature, which she is expected to do. The laws would allow certain people, such as family members, law enforcement and health providers to ask a court to temporarily take guns away from people they believe can injure themselves or other people.

The court will then review evidence and consider any past threats made by the individual in question, mental illness, previous criminal charges, illegal use of controlled substances, alcohol abuse, unlawful use of a firearm and any other information deemed relevant.

If the court determines there is probable cause, the person in question will then have 24 hours to surrender their firearms, or officials will seize the weapons. A hearing will then be held within 14 or five days.

Livingston County Sheriff Mike Murphy said in a Facebook video that he thinks the potential red flag laws are unconstitutional because a court can take away someone's gun before that person has a chance to defend themselves in court.

"We have never been able to legislate our way out of a crisis," Murphy said. "That's not how it works. You can make all the laws in the world, and people are going to do evil things."

Although Murphy noted he's not familiar with all the details involved in the deadly Oxford and Michigan State school shootings, he said if the reg flag laws were in effect, he doesn't think they would have had an effect in curbing the shootings.

In response, the Livingston County Democrats said in a statement, "It’s especially sad to hear our sheriff promise he will not enforce any court orders for the removal of guns from people judged to be dangerous to themselves or others."

The red flag legislation is the third wave of gun control measures Democrats have pushed through Lansing. Whitmer recently signed into law two sets of bills that include universal background checks and safe storage laws.