Tuesday’s classes at Michigan State University were canceled and a remembrance gathering planned for the three students who lost their lives in a shooting last year — Brian Fraser, Arielle Anderson and Alexandria Verner.

Tuesday also is when Michigan’s sweeping new gun regulations take effect, implementing background checks for all gun purchases, safe storage requirements and red flag laws, also known as extreme risk protection orders, as reported by The Associated Press.

“The tragedy cannot be undone,” said MSU Professor Marco Diaz-Munoz, who testified in favor of the new laws. “There’s nothing that can compensate for that. But there is hope in moving forward and pushing forward for change.”

Anyone who wants to buy a gun in Michigan must now pass a background check, and gun owners must safely store all firearms and ammunition away from the presence of minors.

The red flag law enables family members, police, mental health professionals, roommates and former dating partners to petition a judge to remove firearms from people who they believe pose an imminent threat to themselves or others.

The three new laws were a part of a sweeping gun safety package that had been initially drafted after the 2021 Oxford High School shooting in which four students died and others, including a teacher, were wounded.

A Michigan jury convicted that shooter’s mother of involuntary manslaughter last week, making her the first parent in the U.S. to be held responsible for a child carrying out a mass school shooting.

Gun accessibility was an issue in the trial and investigators say Jennifer and James Crumbley failed to properly secure the gun. James Crumbley faces trial on the same charge next month.

Initially stalled in 2021 with the Legislature under Republican control, the gun safety package gained momentum after Democrats secured the House and Senate in the 2022 midterm elections. The MSU shooting intensified efforts, with Oxford and MSU students rallying at the Capitol to demand stricter gun laws.

“Once we won the majority, we knew we were going to be able to pass these laws. So our plan was to get it ready as quickly as we could, try to get the packages through the Senate,” said state Sen. Rosemary Bayer, who represented Oxford and has been a leading advocate for gun control.

“Then Michigan State happened, and the governor just looked at us and said, ‘I want to do it right now,'” Bayer said.

Safe storage and background checks were approved two months after the MSU shooting, following weeks of testimony from those impacted by the shootings and other gun violence. The red flag law was more controversial, and was signed by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer just over a month later.

And in November, Whitmer signed yet another a measure that prohibits individuals with domestic violence convictions — even misdemeanors — from possessing firearms for at least eight years.

Gun control advocates aren’t done: MSU students plan to meet with lawmakers and stage a sit-in at the Capitol today “to demand continued action on gun violence prevention.”

“I view it as a beginning,” Diaz-Munoz said. “The violence and the epidemic that we’re seeing is symptomatic of something else. And until we address that something else, there’s no amount of gun laws that can prevent completely, or minimize more significantly, what is happening.”

We applaud this effort by the state, as “thoughts and prayers” simply weren’t getting it done. Diaz-Munoz is right — this is an epidemic in our country, and we believe that no child or young adult should ever be afraid to attend their classes. This is a great step forward in ensuring they don’t have to be.