The League of Women Voters held the “Responsible Gun Laws and Policies Webinar” on Thursday where experts offered insight on gun deaths and legislation in Wisconsin.
The league, which was established in 1920 as a nonpartisan civic organization, held presentations from gun violence and policy experts moderated by former journalist Carol Koby.
Tara Weins, public health analyst at the Violence Policy Center, said during the event that firearm homicide and suicide have increased in Wisconsin in recent years. Black Wisconsin residents have the highest firearm suicide rate, and firearm suicide rates have increased more dramatically in rural areas compared to urban areas in the state, Wiens said.
“In 2022, Black residents in Wisconsin were almost 70 times more likely to die by firearm homicide, compared to white Wisconsin residents for whom the firearm homicide rate was much lower,” Wiens said.
Weins cited the Black Homicide Victimization report, which found that Wisconsin had the second highest rate of Black homicide victimization in the United States, surpassed only by Missouri.
The second speaker was Nicholas Matizouski, associate executive director of the WAVE Educational Fund, Wisconsin's oldest and largest gun violence prevention organization. An attorney and advocate for gun violence prevention, Matizouski explained legislative actions that can be taken to improve gun safety in Wisconsin.
Extreme risk laws,sometimes referred to as red flag laws, can act as a preventative measure against gun violence, according to WAVE. These laws allow families and law enforcement to ask a judge to temporarily prohibit an at-risk person from purchasing or possessing a gun.
Matizouski also emphasized the importance of background checks. Federally licensed firearm dealers are required to conduct a background check on gun-buyers through the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, according to federal law. If a buyer is prohibited from purchasing a gun for any reason, like previous violent crimes, the system will alert the dealer not to sell the individual the firearm.
Matizouski advocated for reinstating a waiting period for firearm purchases in Wisconsin, citing benefits to preventing gun violence.
“We had a 48-hour waiting period in the past, and I think at least returning to that at the bare minimum would be a life-saving policy,” he said.
Aurielle Smith, director of policy, planning and evaluation at Public Health Madison and Dane County, cited the importance of understanding nuance in gun violence data, prioritizing harm reduction.
“I think we talk a lot about the stigma around gun ownership, but we don't talk a lot about the stigma between gun owners who then feel like they can't turn over their firearm because that's just, not within the culture.” Smith said.
Harm reduction measures like safe storage laws and gunshop partners increase gun safety, Smith said.
Smith rejected the argument that the way to solve gun violence is with “another gun,” calling attention to the complex nature of those who are victims and perpetrators of this kind of violence.
“We have to start thinking about the bigger challenges I've mentioned: mental health, the social determinants of health, the bigger social policy economic factors that lend to creating an environment where violence has arguably kind of just been accepted as a thing that happens in our society,” Smith said.
The final speaker, Lindsay Buescher, a volunteer legislative lead for the Wisconsin chapter of Moms Demand Action, said she was spurred to engage in gun violence prevention advocacy after the school shooting in Parkland, Florida in 2017, when her own kids were ages four and one.
“I didn't want to wait for gun violence to come to my doorstep,” she said.
Both Smith and Buescher said the new statewide Office of Violence Prevention Gov. Tony Evers announced in January is a positive step for their work against gun violence.
However, Bueshcer also expressed concern that federal legislation such as the proposed HR 38, or The Constitutional Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act, introduced by Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives could undermine gun control legislation passed by states.
“[HR 38] means that anybody in another state with a weaker law can take a gun into any other state and that other state has to honor the weaker states laws,” she said. “[So] we're really trying to make sure that our federal legislators and people in Congress do not vote for or support HR 38.”
