LANSING, Mich.(WZMQ) – Governor Gretchen Whitmer signed an executive order Thursday re-establishing Michigan’s Gun Violence Prevention Task Force, extending the group’s work for another four years as the state marks Gun Violence Awareness Month.
Whitmer signed Executive Order 2026-13 at Edison Academy in Kalamazoo, renewing a task force that was created in 2024 following the mass shootings at Oxford High School and Michigan State University. Whitmer also issued a proclamation declaring June as Gun Violence Awareness Month in Michigan.
The task force, housed within the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, was set to expire next week. The new order keeps the panel in place through the next gubernatorial administration.
“Thoughts and prayers are not enough,” Whitmer said. “We owe it to all the victims and survivors alike to take meaningful steps to end this crisis, and we owe it to each other to take action and find common ground everywhere we can.”
Student advocates also joined the governor during Thursday’s event. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Michigan recorded 1,228 firearm-related deaths in 2025, with an age-adjusted firearm mortality rate of 11.9 deaths per 100,000 residents. Savannah Robert, a recent graduate of Loy Norrix High School and president and cofounder of the school’s Students Demand Action chapter, said she’s spent too much of her life worried about the impacts of gun violence on her community, and the increased risk her and her peers face as black Americans.
“For myself personally, I have never lived without the knowledge and fear of gun violence,” said Savannah Robert, a recent graduate of Loy Norrix High School and president of the school’s Students Demand Action chapter. “It has been too long and too many lives have been lost for this still to be a part of my everyday life. That is why most of us are standing here. That is my why.”
According to the executive order, the task force will continue serving as an advisory body to the governor and state health officials. Members will work to identify barriers to reducing gun violence, improve data collection efforts, engage community stakeholders, and recommend legislative or administrative actions.
The task force is led by Michigan Chief Medical Executive Dr. Natasha Bagdasarian and includes representatives from state agencies, law enforcement, education, health care, victim advocacy organizations, and community groups.
Bagdasarian said the task force approaches gun violence as a broad public health issue rather than a single problem.
“Just here in our state, 75 of those who die every year are children,” she said. “These are our loved ones, our neighbors, and our friends. And our mission has been not just to look at gun violence as one problem, but to look at the whole landscape. That means looking at community violence, suicide, intimate partner violence, unintentional injuries, and school shootings through a coordinated, comprehensive approach.”
The governor highlighted several firearm-related laws enacted since 2023, including universal background checks, safe storage requirements, extreme risk protection orders, and restrictions on firearm ownership for individuals convicted of domestic violence offenses.
While Whitmer said additional legislation may face challenges in the Republican-controlled House, she expressed hope that the task force’s work will continue shaping future policy discussions.
“There’s always hope, but I’m a realist too,” Whitmer said. “We’ve made great strides. But at this point, the task force work with all these different stakeholders I think is the most powerful way we can really put together a plan for the future.”
