Michigan Education Association President Steve Cook said his union will use “any legal means at our disposal” to combat members who want to leave the union.

Cook made his statement in a letter he sent to MEA local presidents, board members and staff. MEA Spokesman Doug Pratt didn’t respond to a request for comment.

The MEA said if members want to resign, they have to do so in August, "and only August,” Cook wrote.

"We are sticking to that," Cook wrote. "Members who indicate they wish to resign membership in March, or whenever, will be told they can only do so in August." he wrote, adding that the union will take legal action against members or fee payers who chose not to pay their dues/service fees.

Patrick Wright, senior legal analyst for the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, said there is a Michigan Employment Relations Commission ruling that supports the MEA's hardline stance.

"I don’t think it makes a ton of sense," Wright said. "The union's administrative concerns shouldn't trump people's freedoms."

Two former public school teachers' union presidents questioned how the MEA was handling the "August only" resignation window.

"I don’t like it," Dusty Fairfield, a former Ravenna teachers’ union president, said in an email. "First of all, have fun finding signed membership forms that are current. Secondly, you're going to come out publicly and threaten the very same people who have supported the MEA financially for their entire careers."

John Ellsworth, a former Grand Ledge teachers' union president agreed.

"If members wish to no longer be members, then those wishes should be honored," he said in an email. "Honoring those wishes may not happen instantly, but they should be honored at the next appropriate window. I hope that the MEA and locals approach it that way.

"It is never appropriate to ignore member requests, even if it is a request to resign membership," Ellsworth said. "If a member resigns in March, then I believe the MEA or local should tell the member that the resignation will be made effective in August when drops in membership are processed, but the member should not have to take further action."

Michigan's handgun owners could get an extra layer of privacy protection if a newly introduced Senate bill is passed and signed into law.

Senate Bill 49 was introduced by Sen. Tom Casperson, R-Escanaba, and would keep state databases containing information on issued licenses private. It also would keep them from being subject to the Freedom of Information Act.

Concealed pistol licenses in Michigan already are protected as private information under state law. However, pistol sales records and pistol sales permits are now protected only by case law, said Ryan Mitchell, a legislative staffer who researched the law for Sen. Mike Green’s office. It was ruled in the 1999 Michigan Supreme Court Case, Mager vs. the Michigan State Police, that pistol sales records and pistol sales permits were private information, but no law specifically says that.

The Supreme Court ruling only gives the state police the option to deny FOIA requests, and doesn’t mandate it, said Patrick Wright, senior legal analyst for the Mackinac Center for Public Policy. Wright said if the state police wanted to, they could release the information.

The state Supreme Court has the final authority but it would have a hard time justifying overturning the state law, Wright said.

Language in the proposed bill states the information is confidential and "shall not be disclosed."

“This really makes these protections concrete and sets them in stone." Mitchell said. "You don't want to be broadcasting to criminals the location of legally-owned firearms."

Steven Dulan, a Lansing attorney and member of the NRA and the Michigan Coalition for Responsible Gun Owners applauded the bill.

"This is a useful step from protecting Michigan gun owners from abuses similar to what happened in New York," Dulan said, adding that people who don't own guns also benefit from gun ownership being kept confidential because it forces "predators to think twice before breaking into anyone's home."

Dulan was referring to the national furor created when The Journal News newspaper in New York published the names and addresses of gun permit holders in their circulation area and included an online map showing the location of the homes of the gun owners.

Since then, at least one person blames the map for his home being burglarized and there are reports that prisoners have told guards that they know where they live thanks to the newspaper. The state of New York legislature passed a law that allows gun owners a way to keep that information private. 

Mackinac Center legislative analyst Jack McHugh said the controversy generated by the newspaper publishing the names could make Senate Bill 49 one of the first Public Acts passed in 2013.

"The stars are aligned for this bill," McHugh said.

More information on this bill and all others introduced in the Michigan Legislature can be found at www.michiganvotes.org.