Wednesday, August 9, 2023

Dear Neighbor,

Right now, the Michigan legislature is on summer recess. I enjoyed meeting with a few of you in Romeo earlier this week and am excited to hear from you at the Oxford Township Board meeting tonight. I’m looking forward to meeting with more of you this month in Washington Township and Ortonville to hear about ways I can continue to best serve you. I’m also extremely excited to join some debates involving local middle school and high school legislators in Brandon Schools this Fall. As always, please feel free to contact me using the information at the bottom of this email if you would like to connect!

Similar to my last letter, I’m attempting to get ahead of the curve so that when the agenda is sprung on us last minute, we will have been active on important issues. I’m continuing to work on advancing many policy-based solutions and look forward to sharing more with you as they enter the committee process. Here are some reforms that could be a high priority after we reconvene in September after Labor Day:
Giving Driver’s Licenses to Illegal Immigrants
Current law prohibits undocumented immigrants from receiving driver’s licenses. Some elected officials even support a repeal of this. I do not.
In 2019, the Governor said she supports giving driver’s licenses to illegal immigrants.[7]

House Bills 4410-4412 and Senate Bills 265-67 would do just that. If enacted, branch offices could begin issuing driver’s licenses to illegal immigrants.
Both the intended and unintended consequences of this type of action are expansive and deep. Think about the stress and confusion this could cause within our election systems and our local communities! We already have nearly 100,000 undocumented persons in the state of Michigan at this point. Giving drivers licenses to illegal immigrants would be (1) a reward to those already here illegally and (2) an incentive to prospective illegal immigrants to break the law, enter our country illegally, and aspire to continue their path of illegal entry to your local neighborhood here in Michigan where they can have their illegal activity validated with a drivers license. I am upset that this proposal is even being discussed, let alone considered and supported by my colleagues!
To say the least, giving drivers licenses to illegal immigrants in Michigan directly degrades every single legal Michigan resident.
While I have not seen it up for committee vote yet, I will share more with you when I get details.

Assault Weapon Bans
The Detroit News interviewed the House Speaker about assault weapon bans. He said he is “open” to it. [3] “It’s something that I am open to…but we have to dig into it more to see what is going to be kinda the next phase in terms of gun violence reduction legislation.” To him, universal background checks represent the “floor, not the ceiling” of what he plans to do.[4]
In District of Columbia vs. Keller (2008), the Supreme Court ruled Americans have a Constitutional right to own and use handguns. Also, in 2015, in Friedman v. Highland Park, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas said:
“Roughly five million Americans own AR-style semiautomatic rifles…citizens who own and use such rifles do so for lawful purposes, including self-defense and target shooting. Under our (Constitutional) precedents, that is all that is needed for citizens to have a right under the Second Amendment to keep such weapons.” If one is not using their firearm illegally, they must maintain their right to defend innocent life.
Constitutional Scholar and Attorney Stephen Halbrook said:
“Heller and Bruen both establish that the Second Amendment extends presumptively to all bearable arms.” Staples v. U.S. (1994).
Furthermore, thousands of law enforcement professionals oppose it. In a professional survey, 95% of them said a ban on the manufacturing and sale of ammunition magazines with more than 10 rounds would not reduce violent crime.[5] Also, after a federal ban on these weapons, murder rates were 19.4% higher.[6]. This statistic is substantial when doing the necessary work on evaluating the unintended consequences of a bill that is designed to sound and feel like an obvious good to some.
A ban will exacerbate social issues in our nation by depriving law-abiding citizens of their right to defend themselves. If legal gun owners lose the use of this important right, then “black market” criminals will celebrate and increase their murderous activity, as proven by the statistic above. We must be afforded the inalienable, usable, God-given right to defend our life, liberty and property, as enshrined in the Constitution I have sworn a sacred oath to uphold to the best of my ability, so help me God.
In Christ,
Representative Josh Schriver
P.S. I will be visiting my parents out-of-state next week and look forward to connecting with you all upon my return.
[1] Michigan gets F grade in 2015 State Integrity Investigation – The Center for Public Integrity

[2] Michigan gets F grade in 2015 State Integrity Investigation – by Chad Selweski – November 9, 2015
[3] Michigan House speaker says he’s ‘open’ to ban on assault weapons – Detroit News Article – March 7, 2023

[4] Universal background check gun bills clear Michigan House – Bridge Michigan

[5] PoliceOne’s Gun Control Survey: 11 Key Lessons from officers’ perspectives – Doug Wyllie – April 8, 2013

[6] Mark Gius, An examination of the effects of concealed weapons laws and assault weapons bans on state-level murder rates, Applied Economic Letters, Vol. 21, No. 4.

[7] Gov. Whitmer backs driver’s licenses for undocumented immigrants – Detroit Free Press Article – Paul Egan – August 2, 2019