Tudor Dixon, the Republican gubernatorial candidate in Michigan, warned voters that Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) is soft on the Second Amendment and would “take guns away from law abiding citizens” during a debate between the two candidates on Thursday evening.
While speaking about school safety, Whitner emphasized her support for additional gun control measures such as background checks and red flag laws.
“As governor, we need to act. I support secure storage. I support background checks, I support red flag laws. My opponent, on the other hand, does not. She’s proposed more guns, less oversight, and eliminating gun-free zones,” Whitmer said.
In response, Dixon hit Whitmer for not standing up to support the Second Amendment and opposing having armed security guards in schools. Dixon said:
“Gretchen Whitmer has made it pretty clear she wants to make sure she takes away any protection you can have. She wouldn’t allow protection even inside of the school where we know that’s the best case scenario if we have someone that can shoot down a shooter, shoot down a threat, but she doesn’t want anything like that.”
“She wants to make sure your kids are in a sitting duck zone where there can be no guns and there’s no protection against them. The idea that she thinks that having any type of weapon is too dangerous for the state of Michigan. She’ll take all of your guns away.”
Later in the debate, the moderators asked a direct question about gun rights and asked each candidate how they would change Michigan’s existing gun laws to combat crime.
Dixon emphasized the need to be tough on criminals rather than law-abiding citizens:
“One of the biggest problems that we have in the state of Michigan is that we’re letting people out too easily. People can make gun crimes and then they’re back out on the street. This is a problem for our police officers, too. They’re afraid to even arrest these guys for fear they’re just going to come back out and target them.”
“We need to make sure we are tough on crime in the state. This idea that you’re going to take guns away from law abiding citizens, and somehow that’s going to keep them out of the hands of criminals. That’s never going to work. We have to make sure we are tough on crime.”
Whitmer again emphasized her support for gun control and attacked Dixon for supporting constitutional carry.
Whitmer said:
“As a governor, I know we can and must act. I support secure storage. I support background checks. I support red flag laws. This is how we keep our communities safer. This is how we keep our kids safer for when they’re in school. My opponent supports constitutional carry, which means more guns, less oversight, less training. She wants to eliminate gun-free zones like at our schools.”
“I don’t think it can be any clearer. The governor’s made her statement. She wants to take guns away from law abiding citizens. She does not trust our law abiding citizens with their guns. We know this,” Dixon said in response.
Gretchen Whitmer says I support constitutional carry.
FACT CHECK: True.
— Tudor Dixon (@TudorDixon) October 13, 2022
Dixon and Whitmer will participate in a second debate two weeks before election day on October 25.
Jordan Dixon-Hamilton is a reporter for Breitbart News. Write to him at jdixonhamilton@breitbart.com or follow him on Twitter.
