Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer
Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)

Michigan’s governor has done a wonderful job of roiling people across the nation with her petty, tyrannical responses to the Chinese virus pandemic. And as much as she doesn’t like guns, though, she has not moved to close gun shops. Yet. This, despite not naming firearms retailers as “essential” in her executive order shuttering non-essential business.

We reported on Governor “Half” Whitmer’s heavy-handed tactics earlier.

The Michigan Coalition for Responsible Gun Owners offered a nice summary from on the ground in the Wolverine State in their emailed “MCRGO MONDAY E’NEWS”:

Shortly after Governor Whitmer issued her expanded and extended Stay Home order on April 9, the NRA-ILA sent out an e-mail titled “Michigan: Gov. Whitmer Excludes Gun Stores From “Critical” Designation.” The e-mail was based on Whitmer incorporating by reference an older set of guidelines from the federal government that specifically excluded later federal guidelines, apparently, in an effort to be as narrow as possible. In her previous order, she had incorporated the later federal guidelines that list gun shops as essential.

This e-mail led to a great deal of confusion among Michigan gun store owners and their customers. To make it very clear, no Michigan gun shops have been closed to date by the State of Michigan based on either the original or expanded Stay Home order. Attorney General Dana Nessel hasn’t been shy about going after businesses she considers to be in violation of Whitmer’s executive orders. She puts out press releases about it nearly every day. But she’s never once mentioned firearms dealers.

Two gun shops in Southwest Michigan were told they had to close by local police but both reopened shortly after. The Michigan State Police and Michigan Attorney General are not attempting to close down gun stores yet. If that happens, there will certainly be a lawsuit seeking to block them. Some stores that sell guns, like Dunhams, have closed at the owner’s discretion either due to lack of stock or the protect the health of their employees and the general public. Many Michigan gun stores remain open for business taking responsible safety precautions to limit customer contact.

Of course, Michigan’s chief executive could demand gun shop closures at any time.  Clearly she doesn’t mind negative publicity. For instance, The American Spectator wrote about her Monday in a piece titled “The Worst Governor in America.

But the good news for Michigan residents — at least for now — who need firearms or ammunition to tool up, many local gun shops remain open.

So go out and support them with your leftover Coronavirus relief funds (arriving this Wednesday according to Treasury Secretary Mnuchin). You local firearms retailer will appreciate it if you do.

58 COMMENTS

  1. Ya see, one of the drawbacks of making a “name” for yourself, is you end up being stuck with that name! And it’s not a very nice name, believe me.

  2. If I get one of those stimulus checks (not something I’m going to pursue) I intend to buy a Randall knife with half and a firearm with the other half. Sure as shit ain’t buying anything from the Chicoms.

    • which model randall and firearm? you probably make enough as a pensioner to preclude you from the dividend, but maybe not.
      most of those blade designs are a little upswept for me, but the 26 sort of kicks ass if maybe a little thick in the spine.
      when was the last time he actually forged anything? i kind of like stuff from small solo grinders. but not much is finished as nicely as a randall ~for the money~.

      • Unless you have a $200000 traceable income SSI recipient’s get a check. I get $1200. You don’t have to “ask” .gov to direct deposite it…I still can’t believe ILL is better than Michigone right now😏

    • “If I get one of those stimulus checks (not something I’m going to pursue)”

      Same, same…except I’m donating half to the local food bank, and the other half for a new gun, handgun or long gun I haven’t decided as of yet…

  3. Sounds nice, I wish someone would’ve told the three shops in my area. if you called them, each has a recording that states they’re closed as per stay at home orders.

    So if you know of any gun shops that are open, please leave them in the comments!

  4. It’s time to get back to normal. This shutdown and the “voluntary” abrogation of our freedom and Constitutional rights in the name of a health crisis does not bode well for the Republic. We probably will add millions more to the nanny state/ dependent on government crowd. Millions out of work. An economy in tatters. It’s not just a matter whether you are an essential business or not. You no longer are free to travel and in virtual lockdown. You have freedom of religion but are not allowed to go to Church. You have freedom of Assembly but are not allowed to assemble. I could go on I won’t. You all can fill in the blanks. Stay safe.

      • Yep, write you a ticket. If you protest you get thrown in jail. Plenty of room, since they’re emptying them out over here. Didn’t Castro do that? Emptied the prisons during Clinton administration? He needed more room for political prisoners, too.
        The gun laws are for you. The “quarantine” is for you. Have you seen any politicians staying home? Nothing new…same hypocrites. We’re the chickens. They’re “guarding” us, keeping us safe.

        • The Raft Exodus was in 1994. The Mariel Boatlift was in 1980.

          IIRC there was a smaller situation like this in 1978 as well.

    • It’s funny how disasters bring the wannabe tyrants out of the woodwork, even some people that read this blog.

      • That depends on what people are willing to put up with.

        This disease has a hospitalization rate of 12.3 per 100,000 across all age groups. In contrast the flu last year was 61.6 per 100,000 across all age groups.

        That’s not to say that the diseases are the same but that’s a pretty damn stark contrast between something we generally don’t care about and this disease.

        For further perspective, it’s now looking like our current numbers are catching about 6% of COVID cases. Of that 6% it would seem that 20-31% of them end up requiring hospitalization across all age groups and of the hospitalized group 11-31% of the oldest (75+) end up in the ICU, lower ages it’s 2-4%. Then we have a fatality rate of about 6.9% of hospital admissions across all age groups, mostly clustered in the ICU admissions over 75 years old or those with significant comorbidities, most notably obesity and it’s related issues. Of all those hospitalized, 89.3% had serious underlying cardiopulmonary conditions on intake and more were found to have undiagnosed issues once in the hospital.

        We’re talking about a disease that puts something on the order of 2% (1.86% if you want to be specific but with current data I wouldn’t say we can be that accurate or precise) of the people who get it in the hospital. Of that, at most, 31% (depending on age cohort) end up in the ICU and of the group that get hospitalized and put in the ICU you’re talking an overall survival rate of of 93% with your lowest survival cohorts having a fatality rate of 21.8%, but they’re also, in this case, over 80 years of age AND with significant comorbid conditions, that is to say; they weren’t long for this world anyway.

        This is a problem, but it’s not world-shattering and if “normal” doesn’t return then we, as a country, have lost our fucking minds.

        • We need to panic, barricade ourselves in our homes and ruin the country and now here you come with your sober numbers and cold realism! How dare you say that this virus, which killed about half as many Americans as regular flu kills each year is not the worst thing in last hundred years? Do you want to see grandma dead?

          Don’t think, get with the program and obey your betters, who know best what we must do to survive this unprecedented plaque.

          Stay the F home! Forever if necessary! The government will keep taking care of us, periodically sending us money it doesn’t have, so we don’t need to work.
          We can do it by pulling together. I mean by staying apart.

        • “which killed about half as many Americans as regular flu kills each year”

          These comparisons don’t hold up, the ‘regular’ flu has had literally decades to penetrate into every part of America, big cities and small towns including rural areas. As a population the ones more susceptible to the ‘regular’ flu have died off, leaving our population with a higher percentage of resistant and/or immune citizens.

          C19 is in a very early stage of propagation, the overall penetration, especially into the rural areas, has not occurred. But it is just a matter of time, something on the order of 1 to 3 months depending on how fast we get back to work.

          There are large populations of infected and sick people in the nursing homes that is not really being discussed or tested.

          Here in tiny WV, we already have one nursing home with 33 staff infected and 39 patients. Those numbers will be repeated across the rural areas of the United States as the virus reaches into every community over the coming months.

      • I got a ‘cartoon’ email today about an address Henry Kissinger gave on May 21, 1992 at the Bilderberg meeting in Evian, France. (Yea, that water/health/spa place)
        The last sentence of the paragraph/his quote:
        “One thing every man fears is the unknown. When presented with this scenario, individual rights will be willingly relinquished for the guarantee of their well being, granted to them, by their world government.”
        Maybe that’s why the states didn’t close gun stores. They’re expecting the people to WANT them closed, in the near future.

    • What, you don’t like communism?
      Because that is basically what we have now
      Communism:
      Control of production… Check. They seem to be telling me I can’t work.
      Free Speech …. Nope Not by gov decree but certainly by big tech
      2nd Amendment… Nope
      Freedom to assemble .. Nope
      Freedom to travel.. Nope
      Freedom to practice religion.. Nope

      The only thing missing is the bread lines.

  5. She brushing up on her gun control credentials.
    Just don’t forget to use fruity smelling shampoo there, toots.

    • @ IAmNotTheHulk:

      You noticed that too? She’s got to be daft to not know how stupid that bright red lipstick makes her look.

  6. Rest assured the marxist media finds useful idiots to enflate her poll numbers. For some people the more tyrannical these democRat Ratbassturds are the better…despicable.

  7. It’s actually worse than what most of the media has shared nationally. You can buy weed and go to an abortion clinic, but you’re not supposed to ride a motorcycle or drive a boat. Want fast food? No problem. Want to buy seeds and plant a garden? Sorry, no.
    She’s absolutely clueless.

    • She had the brilliant idea to close off “non-essential” areas of stores, effectively crowding people closer together. What an idiot.

  8. Local PD closed a shop in the Upper Peninsula as well. They reopened shortly thereafter, once lawyers got involved.

    As to the stay home, stay safe policies: people up here in the UP (at least my area) are being morons. Getting together because “it won’t happen to me!”
    It doesn’t matter that we’ve had several deaths.
    It doesn’t matter that we have ONE local hospital, with little to no depth of service, which will be easily swamped if we hit the same % levels as counties in Troll Land.
    It doesn’t matter that a vast majority of the people in our county are those who will most likely be seriously harmed if they get infected. COVID affects the elderly disproportionately.

    If this only affected those people who are acting like morons, I’d be all for them continuing their stupidity so they would be removed from the gene pool (regardless of political leanings). Hopefully before they procreate. Sadly, that’s not how this or any other pandemic works.

    I called in and registered my complaints when I heard about the local gun shop. Both to the AG and governor’s office. I would LOVE to see constitutional carry, repeal of the pistol registration in Michigan, and better RKBA laws here. But I’d hesitate to bitch about most of the stay at home orders when they are so sorely needed. Yes, the gardening/seeds part of the executive order was idiotic. Her continued silence on gun shops as essential businesses is also horribly disappointing. The fact that she didn’t warn off out-of-state visitors from coming here, well, put it in the same category. Attempting to ban people from going to the northern LP or the UP is a GOOD thing. Our infrastructure can’t support OUR population if this gets up here, why would we want to struggle that much more when visitors come calling? Potentially bringing another case of the virus when they do.

    People comment that this is only an LP thing. No, it isn’t affecting only trolls. Friends of mine (a married couple) were diagnosed presumptive positive with COVID. What did the hospital say? That they WEREN’T going to be tested. They should just go home since, at the time, they were breathing well enough on their own. What happened with the numbers being reported out of this area?

    Well, they didn’t go up. Same number of cases, since they didn’t actually TEST that couple. We have more cases than the number that is being reported. Numbers like these (https://www.bridgemi.com/michigan-health-watch/coronavirus-tracker-what-michigan-needs-know-now) are sadly understated, inaccurate, and out of date.

    • You speak of hospitals being overrun, yet some hospitals are now struggling financially. Do you know why? Because no one is coming in for non emergencies. You can’t treat the entire country like NYC, or other hot spots. That’s why we have local governments. What do you think will happen when some of these small, more rural hospitals are forced to close?

      • As best I can tell, essentially all hospitals are struggling financially now. It is a complicated series of reasons but most people don’t realize just how thin the profit margins are at most hospitals. Hospitals generally make almost all of their money from elective surgical procedures and the operating room and those were the first things that were shut down based on CDC guidance. Even if the hospital is completely full of covid-19 patients they lose money on most of those patients as inpatient hospital stays are paid based on a drg or diagnosis related group. There is no specific drg for covid-19 so they are paid based on a drg for viral pneumonia. The hospital gets paid a lump sum to take care of the patient whether the patient needs admission for two nights or needs to be in the ICU on the ventilator for 20 nights. Since covid-19 is significantly more difficult to treat than the standard viral pneumonia it’s a significant loss leader for the hospital. At our last staff meeting our hospital estimated they were going to lose approximately $150,000 for every covid-19 patient they treated. Combine that with a loss of all elective surgeries and the academic Medical Center in our town is reportedly losing 15 million dollars a day.

        • This is unsustainable which is probably why it isn’t being widely reported. Thanks for the info.

        • What you’re describing isn’t a loss leader (which implies a gain later). It’s just a loss.

          This nationwide sledgehammer response is breaking a LOT of things that aren’t going to be easily put back together. I could be wrong, but I’m pretty sure this isn’t going to end well.

    • Everything I’m looking at is pointing towards there’s no way to avoid this thing, just maybe to stretch out how long until everyone gets exposed.

      And the fatality rate in some places is pushing 4 percent…

      • If we can stretch it out long enough, perhaps we could get a vaccine in place for those who haven’t yet caught it.

        Even if not, I’d rather have all 25k people in my county go into the doctors office or hospital spread out over the course of months (if not years) instead of weeks.

        • How is the vaccine for HIV going along? It has been in development for what, some 30 or 40 years, I’m sure it must be ready anytime now.

        • How long can you afford to stay home? And even if you are one of those who get income even while barricaded inside, how long do you think someone like a remodeling contractor can do that? If I don’t work, I can’t feed my family.

    • Where I grew up in the U.P. the vast majority died from decades of alcoholism or a a complication thereof.

  9. Such journalism John, putting “half” in front of her name. Definitely took the high road on that one…

  10. I’m not saying she isn’t, I’m just saying it’s not professional or helpful. It’s just John in his new cranky self. Trying to inflame the crowds.

  11. Didn’t read all the comments, but she also outlawed boats with motors. Indiana guy here that pays lots of money to MI and OH each year to fish in their state. Outlaw me I’ll deal, outlaw your residents from using a boat to catch fish, Wow! Oh and you can use a sailboat, kayak or canoe I believe, just not a “fishing boat”……

  12. Typical pompous democrat douchebagger sitting in an ivory tower high above the fray looking down on servants in need of firearms. Nothing new…Imagine what it was like for Gun Controlled Black Americans following the Civil War and through Jim Crow. Imagine living in a dirt floor shack with your family while the torch carrying military wing of the KKK democRat Party terrorized you and yours. No phone, no gun, no help, no nothing.
    Today when you see a democRat deny your 2A Right you are getting a small but significant sample of where today’s democRat Party Gun Control began. The Democrat Party needs to be held liable for their Democrat Party race based atrocities. And that includes Gun Control.

  13. If this was ever a time to defy tyranny…

    Hopefully every single gun shop will refuse compliance.

  14. Whitey Y Huddson, Looking for hook up with a stranger! ?? Ready for any experiments! ?? –==>>>2.gp/a71Bz

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