Thank you, Livingston County Sheriff Mike Murphy, for using Michigan’s new “red flag” gun law after you said that you wouldn’t enforce it. Hindsight is not always better given that you have apparently found the new personal protection law a useful law enforcement tool.
In 2023, the sheriff said he didn’t think the “red flag” law was constitutional. The following day, the Livingston County Board of Commissioners declared our county a “Constitutional County,” vowing to push back as much as they could against the pending red flag laws. (You can read The Livingston Post’s story here.)
Now, one year later, records obtained by Bridge Michigan show your office was one of the first in Livingston County to use an “extreme risk protection order” to confiscate weapons from a man undergoing what a deputy called a mental health crisis.
You are to be congratulated because your decision to use the new law makes Livingston County residents more safe.
As a resident of Marion Township, I congratulate you for your willingness to change your mind and protect our citizens.
Mary B. Killeen
Marion Township
