In Victory for Open-Carry Advocates, Michigan Supreme Court Declines to Hear Library’s Appeal

Michigan libraries will no longer be able to regulate firearms on their property after the state’s supreme court declined to hear an appeal on the issue.

Michigan Open Carry, a Second Amendment rights group, challenged the Capital Area District Library’s ban on open carry of handguns in February 2011, alleging that it violated state law as well as the Michigan and U.S. constitutions. A trial court upheld the ban, but in October 2012, a Michigan Court of Appeals panel ruled that the library system lacked the ability to regulate firearms on its property because of the state’s regulations on where the weapons could be carried.

The library filed an appeal in January, but yesterday the Michigan Supreme Court issued an order declining to hear it. The lower court’s ruling will stand.