In his first week as Michigan House speaker, Matt Hall (R-Richland Twp.) has reversed the ban Democratic leadership placed last session on state House employees bringing firearms to work in the House Office Building.

Michigan officials had debated for years whether to continue allowing firearms in and around the Michigan State Capitol Building after an armed anti-Gov. Gretchen Whitmer protest inside and at the doors of legislative chambers in 2020 during the COVID pandemic.

Democrats have introduced legislation to bar guns from the Capitol. In 2023, the bipartisan Michigan Capitol Commission voted to ban firearms from the building in 2023. 

Currently, lawmakers and Capitol law enforcement are the only individuals permitted to carry firearms in the state Capitol building per the Capitol Commission’s policy.

But across the street at the House Office Building — where committee hearings are held and lawmakers have their offices — guns are now allowed, under a policy Hall issued last week. 

An email from the House Business Office Director Doug Simon sent last to House staff Friday reads: “At the direction of Speaker Hall and in consultation with House legal counsel, starting Monday, January 13, 2025, employees will be permitted to carry firearms within the Anderson House Office Building in any legal manner – consistent with the rights of the general public.”

The previous ban had narrowly barred House staff from carrying firearms and did not include lawmakers or members of the public from lawfully carrying firearms in the House Office Building.

The House installed weapons detection technology at the entrance to the building’s elevators to committee rooms and offices in the summer of 2023, in an effort to up the building’s security efforts.

The House and Senate are their own entities as the Capitol Commission simply makes decisions for the state Capitol grounds, Commission Chair William Kandler told the Michigan Advance.

“The House and Senate are in charge of their own buildings. They make their own policies,” Kandler said.

State Rep. Jamie Thompson (R-Brownstown Twp.) touted Hall’s decision as a win in Lansing on social media, saying it reversed an “unconstitutional decision” made by Democratic leadership.

“When the former Speaker of the House Joe Tate prohibited member staff from legally carrying a firearm in the Anderson Office Building, it was a direct violation of their 2nd Amendment Right under the Michigan Constitution and the US Constitution,” Thompson said.