A report by the Michigan State Police shows just how easy it is to bypass the security in place at the state capitol designed to enforce the building’s “gun-free zone,” and Second Amendment activist and rocker Ted Nugent made it all possible.
Last month Nugent managed to get through security with a concealed firearm as he visited the capitol to testify before a legislative committee. It wasn’t until after he was in the committee room that state police apparently discovered he was carrying in violation of capitol policy. Now an administrative report obtained by the Detroit News reveals the human error that led to the security breach.
Just after 10 a.m. June 25, Nugent passed through a weapons detection system at the north annex entrance to the Capitol that was staffed by a Michigan State Police trooper, according to a State Police administrative complaint report obtained through a records request.
Nugent passed through the system, according to the report, “along with numerous others at that time.”
The weapons detection system functioned correctly, the report said, but the trooper missed the alert indicating Nugent had a firearm.
Shortly after passing through the first weapons detection system and prior to the committee hearing, Nugent went through an additional system on the ground floor of the Capitol manned by House sergeants, according to the report.
“I am unaware of the circumstances surrounding the encounter at the WDS (weapons detection system) staffed by a House Sergeant of Arms,” the report said.
Gideon D’Assandro, a spokesman for House Speaker Matt Hall, the Richland Township Republican who employs the House sergeants, said it’s not unusual for sergeants to waive someone through who has already gone through the primary checkpoint at the north annex entrance.
“When people go through that checkpoint and are cleared, they aren’t stopped again at the checkpoint staffed by the sergeants,” D’Assandro said.
So, according to this report this wasn’t a case of law enforcement turning a blind eye to Nugent carrying a firearm because of his politics or his celebrity status. They simply whiffed and didn’t realize that he had a pistol on his person until individuals in the committee room where Nugent was testifying alerted the state police.
Nugent gave his public testimony without issue, and according to the report he was contacted afterward and was “completely cooperative in surrendering his firearm while within the Capitol”.
Someone with violent intent, of course, wouldn’t have been nearly as cooperative, and the failure of the state capitol building’s “gun-free zone” would have been more than an amusing story about a pro-Second Amendment rocker who managed to bypass the security system and keep his pistol by his side.
State Rep. Laurie Pohutsky, a Livonia Democrat who drew attention to the issue on social media, said Friday she has several remaining questions about the incident and why Nugent was allowed to finish the committee hearing before he was approached by law enforcement.
“I think that there’s a lot of coverage about this particular instance because it’s Ted Nugent,” Pohutsky said. “I would ask that folks set that aside and just look at this as someone who was not supposed to carry a firearm into the Capitol somehow did so.”
Did Nugent’s celebrity status enable him to receive special treatment from the state police once they contacted him? Maybe, though I suspect that if another individual well-known to the officers (and one who they knew as a peaceable person with no ill intent) they would also have allowed him or her to complete their testimony before being reminded of the “no guns allowed” policy. At least I’d hope that would be the case.
I don’t know if Pohutsky believes the SWAT team should have been called or Nugent taken down to the floor and disarmed by state troopers, but I think the situation was handled appropriately. What’s not appropriate is the gun ban itself. Clearly its possible to get around the gun ban, and you don’t have to be a celebrity to do so.
The state capitol carry ban has only been in place a few years, so it’s not like this some longstanding tradition. Consider it an experiment in public safety, and one that the state has clearly failed. Since they can’t guarantee these “gun-free zones” are actually gun-free, it’s time to revise the policy and once again allow for lawful concealed carry on the capitol grounds.
Editor’s Note: The anti-gun media continues to deflect, gaslight, spin, and lie our Second Amendment rights.
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