Sec. 20. In any prosecution for the violation of any acts of the state relative to use, licensing and possession of pistols or firearms, the burden of establishing any exception, excuse, proviso or exemption contained in any such act shall be upon the defendant but this does not shift the burden of proof for the violation.
Mich. Comp. Laws § 776.20
Firearms violations; burden of establishing exception
Applied in 23 court decisions — leading case People v. Dempster (1976)
Most recently applied in United States v. Anthony Williams (May 2012)
Add. 1968, Act 299, Eff
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
Official source: Michigan Legislature. Reproduced from public-domain Michigan statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.