Yesterday, the Michigan House passed, by a 59/49 vote, a new gun law that demotes the once-required concealed pistol license to an optional certificate; a training and safety measure only.

The new law allows citizens to carry a concealed pistol without a license. No more worries for the "open carry" crowd, when a coat or a sweatshirt inadvertently covers the weapon, thereby creating felony exposure.

Lee Chatfield [R-Levering], who sponsored the legislation, asserted the basis of the legislation was that criminals were never bothered with following the gun permit laws anyway. According to its mostly Republican sponsors, the legislation is designed to provide law abiding citizens with the same rights and opportunities to bear concealed weapons.

Similarly, Jim Runestad [R-White Lake] said the new law repeals unnecessary criminal sanctions for when an overcoat covers the weapon of an arms-bearing individual. This was known as the "coat tax" among gun rights advocates.

Gun laws come and go. Even considering the Second Amendment, the manner in which one bears arms will always be regulated to a certain extent, with high criminal penalties for transgressions.

Just as the new law was passed in the state legislature, the Michigan Court of Appeals upheld a law that allows the University of Michigan to ban guns on all of its campuses. Ann Arbor has always been a league leader in blazing its own legal trail. Decriminalization of pot in the 1980s -at the height of the drug war- and the UM admission policies reviewed by the SCOTUS both come to mind.

The training involved in handling and storing a weapon safely is crucial to the process, especially when the overwhelming majority of gun owners are law-abiding citizens.

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