Mother of MSU shooting victim calls for 'common sense' gun safety legislation

LANSING — The mother of an Okemos High School graduate wounded in the Feb. 13 mass shooting at Michigan State University urged legislators to pass "common sense" gun safety laws, recounting the horrific night her son was shot in the chest at Berkey Hall.

Krista Grettenberger, mother of student Troy Forbush, told the House Judiciary Committee her son called her at 8:18 p.m. and said, "I love you mom. I've been shot. There's a shooter."

After uttering those words, Forbush stopped talking, and Grettenberger said she could hear the voices of "frantic, scared, young adults working together to secure the classroom and tend to the wounded."

Grettenberger said she rushed the short distance to campus and found her son being loaded into an ambulance.

"He was gray as cement, but I was able to tell him that I loved him and that he was strong before the ambulance sped away," she said.

After hearing testimony, the judiciary panel voted along party lines to advance a bill that would expand mandatory background checks to all firearm purchases, not just handguns.

House Bill 4138 would mandate background checks for all guns purchased in Michigan.

Federal law currently requires background checks for gun sales by licensed dealers while Michigan's law requires first obtaining a license for purchasing pistols from private sellers. But current state law means those buying firearms longer than 26 inches from private sellers don't need to first obtain a license to purchase.

House Bills 4142 and 4143, also passed Wednesday, would amend Michigan’s penal and correction codes to reflect the new background check requirements for all firearms, not just pistols.

Forbush, 21, was shot through the lung, his mother said. He was the first of the injured students to be released from the hospital, according to a social media post he made in late February. He also vowed to fight for "change."

"I took a bullet to my chest, had a brush with death, and almost didn’t make it if it weren’t for the incredible doctors who saved my life in emergency surgery that night," Forbush posted on his Facebook page. "After a week spent in the ICU and three additional days being cared for by the superhero staff, I was blessed to be the first individual discharged from Sparrow Hospital."

Grettenberger, one of many people who testified before the committee on Wednesday, described the three students who died and the five other students who were injured at MSU as victims of a "failed system" that can't keep guns from people who shouldn't have them.

It's unclear if the mass shooting could have been prevented, but any one of the proposed gun safety measures might have stopped Anthony McRae from shooting the eight student and "terrorizing this entire community," Grettenberger said.

"Speed limits and seatbelt laws don’t prevent all car crashes, but they are proven to save lives," she said. "We've got to enact similar common-sense measures for guns."

Opponents of background check laws and other gun safety proposals introduced in Michigan argue that none of the proposed measures would have prevented the mass shooting at Michigan State. John Lott, president of the pro-gun rights Crime Prevention Research Center, testified in committee gun safety laws aren’t practical because criminals don’t respect laws.

Williamston Schools Superintendent Adam Spina also testified before the committee on Wednesday, advocating for gun safety laws that he said would "at least, broaden the responsibility" for keeping children safe beyond local school districts.

Spina said he's combat veteran who is now retired from the U.S. Army Reserve and believes in the right to bear arms and to defend himself and his family. The proposed gun safety measures wouldn't deprive him of those rights, he said.

"There's nothing in these bills that infringes on my constitutional right to bear arms or defend myself or my family," he said.

Local school districts are devoting a great deal of time and resources to keeping children safe, and some of the things he learned in combat life-saving training are now part of the protocol being taught to young children and school staff, he said.

Over the past six years, the Williamston district has implemented "over 60 unique safety initiatives, with more on the way," he said.

"We deal with real fear that we could be the next victims of gun violence," he said.

The Detroit Free Press contributed to this report.

Contact Ken Palmer at kpalmer@lsj.com. Follow him on Twitter @KBPalm_lsj.

This article originally appeared on Lansing State Journal: Mother of MSU shooting victim calls for 'common sense' gun safety legislation