Michigan should ban assault weapons, a Gun Violence Prevention Task Force created by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer recommended Monday. (Seth Perlman/Associated Press, file)

(This story was originally published by Bridge Michigan, a nonprofit and nonpartisan news organization. Visit the newsroom online: bridgemi.com.)

LANSING — Michigan’s Gun Violence Prevention Task Force is calling on the state to ban assault weapons, close a concealed pistol license “loophole” and increase the minimum age to buy guns to 21.

Those are just a few of the 39 recommendations included in Monday’s final report from the task force Gov. Gretchen Whitmer created last year by executive order, charging members to advise her and other state officials “on the root causes and possible solutions for gun violence in Michigan.”

Dr. Natasha Bagdasarian, the state’s chief medical executive and the task force’s chair, said the report is not meant to be political, though many of their recommendations would require writing new laws or securing state funding.

“We are looking at firearm violence and firearm -elated deaths as a public health crisis,” Bagdasarian told Bridge Michigan, noting firearms are the top killer of US children.

The 11-member panel was “looking at this as an issue that isn’t going to be addressed by one single change or one single intervention, but something that is going to need incremental change in many areas,” she added.

Whitmer, a Democrat, hailed the report, but some of its more aggressive recommendations are sure to face opposition in the Republican-led state House, where Speaker Matt Hall in June publicly rejected the kind of ghost gun ban the task force is also recommending.

“We all want to keep Michiganders safe,” Whitmer said in a statement. “These recommendations will help us do exactly that.”

Suicide by firearms, which make up 57% of all firearm-related deaths in Michigan between 2018 and 2023, according to the panel, is placed front and center in the report.

The panel recommended a number of changes to reduce firearm-related suicides, including giving federal firearms licensees immunity from lawsuits if they store a firearm for someone in crisis who, after returning the gun, goes on to harm themselves. They also recommended expanding the availability of safe storage options and improving data collection around the deaths.

Task force members included Wayne County prosecutor Kym Worthy, Kalamazoo County Sheriff Richard Fuller, community and mental health advocates and University of Michigan professor April Zeoli, who studies firearm injury prevention.

The panel also recommended Michigan join 10 other states in banning the sale or transfer of assault weapons. It also suggested bans on large-capacity magazines, making 3D-printed “ghost guns,” and buying or owning conversion devices like bump stocks and glock switches.

It’s currently legal for Michiganders to buy a pistol or rifle from a private seller at 18 years old. The task force recommended raising the minimum age to 21 years old across the board, as 21 other US states have done.

Bagdasarian compared a recommendation to remove immunity from firearms manufacturers to the state’s suit against opioid makers that netted Michigan close to $2 billion to combat that epidemic.

“We’ve been able to use that type of financial accountability to combat another public health issue,” she said.

Brenden Boudreau, the director of Great Lakes Guns Rights, told Bridge in an interview a gun rights advocate should’ve been at the table, too.

“I’m not surprised by anything produced by this task force,” he said, slamming the report as “partisan” and “from a Democrat administration who’s shown to be hostile to the rights of Michiganders to keep and bear arms.”

At the same time, there was at least one recommendation in the report his organization could get behind — establishing some training and education requirements for school resource officers — as Boudreau’s group supports “hardening” schools against would-be shooters.

The report also called for creating a statewide school safety tip line and a host of community violence intervention measures.

When Democrats controlled both chambers of the legislature in 2023 and 2024, they passed “red flag” gun confiscation laws, instituted safe storage requirements and required universal background checks for firearms sales.

Those laws need some polishing, the task force concluded.

Michigan’s red flag law allows judges to approve emergency risk protection orders, known as ERPOs, for authorities to seize guns from people they believe to be at risk of harming themselves or others for a specified period of time.

The task force recommended processes for implementing and enforcing ERPOS should be standardized statewide, including creating systems for notifying law enforcement and gun sellers of the restrictions during background checks. They also pushed for additional funding to promote awareness of the law. Law enforcement should also be mandated to serve and enforce the firearm bans, they wrote — some officials had pledged not to enforce the law before it was enacted but have since changed course.

The report also suggests expanding information about safe storage opportunities outside of homes and closing what task force members called a loophole where would-be gun buyers with concealed pistol licenses don’t need a background check or purchase permit, which could allow someone to buy a gun who might otherwise be ineligible.

“One man’s loopholes is another man’s freedom,” Boudreau countered. “Criminals are just going to keep doing what criminals do, which is ignore the law.”

Bagdasarian told Bridge the recommendations go beyond policy changes, though.

“We really need to have everyone at the table addressing this issue, because at the end of the day, we all want the same thing, and that is to keep our community safe, to keep our families safe and to keep our children safe,” she said.