6.8Firearms and Ammunition Restrictions Against Law Enforcement Employee
A.Restrictions on Activities Involving a Firearm or Ammunition
1.State Restrictions
MCL 600.2950 (domestic relationship PPOs) and MCL 600.2950a (nondomestic stalking and nondomestic sexual assault PPOs) permit a court to enjoin or restrain any individual regardless of his or her occupation from purchasing or possessing a firearm when entering a PPO. See MCL 600.2950(1)(e); MCL 600.2950(2); MCL 600.2950a(5); MCL 600.2950a(26), which authorize a court to restrain or enjoin a respondent from purchasing or possessing a firearm and, if known, require the petitioner to inform the court before issuance of a PPO if the respondent has a concealed weapons permit and “is required to carry a weapon as a condition of his or her employment, a police officer licensed or certified by the Michigan commission on law enforcement standards act, . . . MCL 28.601 to [MCL] 28.615, a sheriff, a deputy sheriff or a member of the Michigan department of state police, a local corrections officer, department of corrections employee, or a federal law enforcement officer who carries a firearm during the normal course of his or her employment[.]”1
See also MCL 765.6b(3) (conditional pretrial release orders), which authorizes the court to release any defendant subject to protective “conditions reasonably necessary for the protection of 1 or more named persons[,]” which may include “impos[ing] a condition that the defendant not purchase or possess a firearm[;]”2 MCL 771.3(2)(o) (probation orders), which authorizes the court to require any probationer, as a condition of his or her probation, to “[b]e subject to conditions reasonably necessary for the protection of 1 or more named persons.”3
In addition, law enforcement employees convicted of a felony are also subject to the restrictions imposed on certain activities involving firearms or ammunition by convicted felons set forth in MCL 750.224f (felon-in-possession statute).4 See MCL 750.231 (excluding MCL 750.224f from its list of statutes to which exemptions for certain persons and organizations, including specified law enforcement and military personnel, may apply).
2.Federal Restrictions
Except for firearm or ammunition restrictions resulting from a conviction of a misdemeanor crime of domestic violence under 18 USC 922(g)(9), the statutory provisions contained in 18 USC 922(g) that specifically prohibit persons convicted of certain crimes from possessing or receiving firearms or ammunition do not “apply with respect to the transportation, shipment, receipt, possession, or importation of any firearm or ammunition imported for, sold or shipped to, or issued for the use of, the United States or any department or agency thereof or any State or any department, agency, or political subdivision thereof.”5 18 USC 925(a)(1).
Note, however, 18 USC 922(g)(8) prohibits a person who is subject to a court order that restrains him or her from abusing an intimate partner or intimate partner’s child from “ship[ping] or transport[ing] in interstate or foreign commerce, or possess[ing] in or affecting commerce, any firearm or ammunition; or [] receiv[ing] any firearm or ammunition which has been shipped or transported in interstate or foreign commerce.”
B.Restrictions on Issuing Firearms License
Certain law enforcement, military, and governmental employees may be exempt from the pistol licensing statute under MCL 28.432, and from the concealed pistol licensing statute under MCL 28.432a.
1 For a detailed discussion of personal protection orders (PPOs), see Chapter 5.
2 See also MCR 6.106(D)(2)(k), which authorizes the court to impose a pretrial release condition prohibiting the defendant from “possess[ing] a firearm or other dangerous weapon[.]” For a detailed discussion of conditional pretrial release orders, see Section 3.5.
3 For a detailed discussion of probation orders, see Section 3.6.
4 See Sections 6.5(B)-(C) for more information on restrictions imposed under MCL 750.224f.
5 Federal law does not exempt “the United States or any department or agency thereof or any State or any department, agency, or political subdivision thereof” from the statutory provisions of 18 USC 922(d)(9), which specifically prohibit “any person [from] sell[ing] or otherwise dispos[ing] of any firearm or ammunition to any person [he or she] know[s] or ha[s] reasonable cause to believe” “has been convicted in any court of a misdemeanor crime of domestic violence.” 18 USC 925(a)(1). The penalty for knowingly violating 18 USC 922(d)(9) is a fine and/or a maximum ten-year prison term. 18 USC 924(a)(2).