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City Leaders Search for Solutions to Gun Violence

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Milwaukee is not alone when it comes to gun violence. Many cities are confronting the problem. On Thursday, the leaders of several gathered downtown to discuss what they might do to reduce gun crimes. We stopped by the Hilton Hotel, to hear what mayors and police chiefs are saying.

U.S. Attorney James Santelle told the city leaders attending the gun violence conference something they already know. Firearms are everywhere.

“When we look at child pornography cases, human trafficking cases, financial crime cases, banking cases, search warrants that are done by colleagues in Minnesota, Illinois, throughout the state of Wisconsin a gun is recovered, guns are recovered. They may not be illegal, but they are everywhere and that’s a part of the problem.  We’ve got too many guns in this country legal and illegal,” Santelle says.

So far this year in Milwaukee, the number of homicides is down by around 21 percent. But 346 people have been shot and survived. If you watch the news, you know gun violence is a problem here. But here’s a statistic that may be surprising.

“We found out that as of June, a city of 8.5 million had only ceased about 50 more guns from its streets than Milwaukee had.”

That’s Milwaukee Police Chief Edward Flynn, at Thursday’s conference. He says his department has taken more than 1,600 guns off the streets this year – nearly equal to what police have done in New York City, and it’s 14 times larger. Yet Flynn says Wisconsin law does very little to deter offenders from carrying guns.

“The bottom line is this, as long as you face a stricter sentence in Wisconsin for possessing marijuana then you do for possessing a gun, we’re going to have a lot of people shot. Now I’d be the first chief, and I know my colleagues agree with me, to say ease up on the marijuana laws. How in the name of god could a second possession of marijuana be a felony in this state, but you can get locked up 10 times and it’s always a misdemeanor. It’s nutty,” Flynn says.

The police leaders and mayors attending the conference want the government to mandate background checks for all gun sales, including those between private parties and via the internet.

Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett says those changes won’t happen without support from lawmakers.

“Of course people should have background checks before they’re allowed to purchase a gun. We’re not seeing that support from the legislature from the governor, we don’t see it at the federal level. My point is we can’t then just say we’re defeated. So rather than saying it’s a sign of defeat, it’s a sign of resolve that if we’re not going to get the help from other places, we’re going to find ways to deal with the issue here,” Barrett says.

The mayors and police chiefs hope their discussions reveal new options.

LaToya was a reporter with WUWM from 2006 to 2021.