GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Early Tuesday morning, Denise Wieck sat before a Michigan Senate committee, describing when she says her 17-year-old son was shot in 2021 by a type of firearm that she and many others have dubbed a "ghost gun" in recent years.
"He used to be a football player for Ann Arbor Pioneer, which is catty-corner from University of Michigan Stadium," Wieck told lawmakers on the Civil Rights, Judiciary and Public Safety Committee.
Wieck told the committee the shot came from one such ghost gun assembled by her son's underage friend.
While her son lives with medical complications to this day including chronic epilepsy she said it's not a fate she feels others should have to endure.
"There's no reason whatsoever that a minor, someone with a mental illness, a domestic abuser or criminal should be able to get these kits so easily and put them together," she said.
Typically 3D printed or assembled from parts a person can have sent to them in a kit, "ghost guns" get their name from the fact that they do not have identifying serial numbers, and can therefore be largely untraceable.
"Unlike traditional firearms, ghost guns can be purchased or created without background checks, assembled by individuals with no firearms training, be completely untraceable by law enforcement or acquired by individuals who would legally be prohibited from purchasing a traditional firearm," State Sen. Mallory McMorrow (D-Royal Oak) told the committee.
While McMorrow and others see this as a dangerous and proliferating possibility, others believe this view falls short of making the legislation a necessity.
"First and foremost, a prohibited individual is prohibited from owning a firearm regardless of how that firearm was made," Nicholas Buggia with the National Rifle Association told the committee. "This means that whether the firearm was manufactured in a factory or made through the use of a kit, it does not change the fact that the possession of that firearm by a prohibited individual is a criminal act. "
These types of firearms have only gained more attention after, according to ABC News, police said they had found what the New York police chief believed appeared to be a ghost gun after arresting the man suspected of killing UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.
Now, on Tuesday morning, Michigan lawmakers moved on McMorrow's pair of bills aimed at clamping down on firearms without serial numbers.
"This bill requires all firearms to be serialized," McMorrow said.
"To be clear, the legislation before you does not ban guns," she said. "But it does prohibit firearms from being ghosts."
But in the eyes of some, banning guns is exactly what they do.
"That is absolutely false, you've been lied to yet again," said Tom Lambert with Michigan Open Carry. "This bill would ban tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands of firearms already lawfully possessed in the state that do not have serial numbers and are not in criminal hands."
So what does the language actually say?
Senate Bill 1149 provides the prohibitions that would exist around non-serialized firearms, while SB 1150 provides for what the criminal penalty could be.
1149 would outlaw "knowingly manufactur[ing] or assembl[ing], caus[ing] to be manufactured or assembled, import[ing], purchas[ing], sell[ing], offer[ing] to sell, or transfer[ing] ownership" of firearms that don't have an imprinted serial number.
The language carries a very similar prohibition on "any ghost gun precursor."
The bill defines such a precursor as "a frame, receiver, or unfinished frame or receiver, that does not have a valid serial number."
Further, the bill would only allow people with firearm manufacturing licenses to do the following:
- Manufacture or assemble firearms or completed or unfinished frames and receivers with the intent to sell it "predominantly" for profit
- Manufacture or assemble more than five firearms or completed or unfinished frames and receivers in Michigan in a calendar year for personal use
- Use a 3D printer or "computer numerical control milling machines" to put together firearms or completed or unfinished frames and receivers
For firearms that are already owned and not considered antiques, the bill would allow three years for residents to get their firearms serialized - an increase up from one year that McMorrow said was made after considering feedback on the bill.
Nevertheless, from what they'd seen, some believe the bills went too far, unnecessarily.
"As we know, criminals do not follow the law, and there would certainly be no incentive for someone willing to use a gun and a crime to comply with this law," Buggia said. "This bill only serves to restrict the rights of law-abiding citizens."
But Wieck, who's become a familiar face in the push for firearms reform, hoped her family's story of survival and subsequent calls for change would convince lawmakers to choose what she sees as the right and humane path.
"I [advocate] because I don't want other families to go through what we've been through, and worse," she said.
On Tuesday, the Democratic-majority committee voted to send both bills to the full Senate. They would also need to pass the state House before they could be considered for a signature from Governor Gretchen Whitmer.