Ridding Milwaukee's Streets of Illegal Guns
Earlier this week, I stood together with U.S. Attorney Steve Biskupic, Milwaukee District Attorney John Chisholm and Police Chief Nan Hegerty to announce that there is a ZERO tolerance policy in this city for crimes committed with a gun.
So far this year, the Milwaukee Police Department has seized 1,028 guns – a 29% increase from the same time last year.
We are sending a strong message: if you commit a crime with a gun in the City of Milwaukee, you are going to jail for a very long time.
We need help from the State and Congress to take our fight a step further. The effort to stop illegal gun trafficking is directly linked to saving young lives and futures in cities like Milwaukee. And we need the legislature to step up.
There is not one federally licensed gun dealer in this city, yet the numbers speak for themselves. One thousand guns taken off the streets this year…and there are still more out there.
We need to close the gun show loophole. And we need background checks for all handgun sales.
You can walk out of a gun show with 50 handguns and not one piece of paper. If this doesn't scare you, it should. Time and time again, when guns used in a crime are traced back to an owner, they say, "I sold it at a gun show," and the investigation stalls.
We need laws that prohibit sales of handguns to anyone under the age of 21.
Too often we hear of tragic cases involving teenagers with illegal guns. Earlier this year a 16-year old was charged with murder at a gas station at Sherman Boulevard and Capitol Drive. Where did that teenager get that gun? We have to ask ourselves.
We need laws that work for us, not against us.
The cost to our community from the violence stemming from illegal possession of guns is staggering. Beyond the economics of the healthcare costs amassed by these victims, there is a greater cost to society that cannot be measured in dollars and cents.
I am proud of our Milwaukee Police Department. In Milwaukee, we do a great job of catching bad guys.
As these numbers show, we are getting the guns. And we are breaking up the gangs, smashing the prostitution rings and putting the criminals behind bars. Milwaukee has one of the best homicide clearance rates in the country. We continue to crack down on cruising – over the past four weekends alone we've towed 98 cars, arrested 269 offenders, including two wanted felons, and issued more than 1,800 citations.
But we need more. We need our legislature in Madison to meet the efforts of our Police Department, and provide Milwaukee with the responsible, common sense gun laws our community needs.
If you agree that one shooting, one robbery, one murder in our city is one too many, there's a seat for you at this table.
Law abiding residents have nothing to fear from responsible gun legislation, and everything to fear from guns like the 1,028 taken by Milwaukee cops from people who never should have had them in the first place.
I urge you to contact our legislative leaders and tell them that we need responsible gun laws that work for us, not against us.
Speaker Mike Huebsch (R-West Salem)
Wisconsin State Assembly
(888) 534-0094
Rep. Jeff Fitzgerald (R-Horicon)
Majority Leader
Wisconsin State Assembly
(608) 266-2401
Rep. Jim Kreuser (D-Kenosha)
Minority Leader
Wisconsin State Assembly
(888) 534-0064
Sen. Judy Robson (D-Beloit)
Majority Leader
Wisconsin State Senate
(800) 334-1468
Sen. Scott Fitzgerald (R-Juneau)
Minority Leader
Wisconsin State Senate
(608) 266-5660