MADISON – Gun safety advocates arrived at the State Capitol on Tuesday morning in droves, eager not only to hear from community leaders, peers and lawmakers, but to urge elected officials to support a new raft of gun violence prevention bills aimed at gun trafficking.
They heard from people like UW-Madison student Nessa Bleill, who three years ago survived the Highland Park parade shooting in Illinois, and Madison Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway, who survived deadly gun violence in high school and presided as mayor during the Abundant Life Christian School shooting, the deadliest in Wisconsin’s history.
Speakers on Oct. 21 also included Rep. Joan Fitzgerald, D-Fort Atkinson; Angela Ferrell-Zabala, executive director of the national Moms Demand Action organization; Nick Matuszewski, associate executive director of WAVE (Wisconsin Anti-Violence Effort) Educational Fund; and Lindsey Buscher, volunteer leader with Wisconsin Moms Demand Action.
The bills would target illegal gun trafficking taking place in Wisconsin, and are intended to give law enforcement the tools to go after corrupt gun dealers, trace illegal gun purchases and shut down illegal gun trafficking rings. They would also close loopholes that allow dealers to funnel weapons into the illegal market, and crack down on bulk purchases of firearms, a known indicator of illegal gun trafficking.
Their fight, emphasized Ferrell-Zabala, is not with the Second Amendment. It’s with the “reckless” practices of selling guns before background checks are complete, and with bulk firearm purchases.
“We do not have to choose between our rights and our safety,” chanted Rhodes-Conway to rousing applause.
In April 2024, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives released its comprehensive firearms trafficking report, showing nearly 230,000 firearms were trafficked in 7,779 cases between 2017 and 2021, accounting for one in five aggravated assaults. Then, any gun dealer who willfully broke the law would have their license revoked, part of the the bureau’s zero tolerance policy.
The Trump administration has since reversed that policy.
The anti-gun trafficking bills come just as two Republican bills would eliminate permit requirements on people who want to carry guns in a discreet fashion, and redraft language strengthening the right to bear arms in the Wisconsin Constitution.
The two sets of bills highlight the philosophical gulf over gun access.
“Show me how any of those bills introduced are actually going to reduce school shootings, reduce suicide, reduce gun violence of any form,” Fitzgerald told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel following the press conference. “The people of Wisconsin want us to reduce gun violence. This does the opposite.”
Also in attendance was Rep. Deb Andraca, D-Whitefish Bay, who told the Journal Sentinel that when she received her concealed carry permit, she was shocked to learn the state didn’t have a live-fire requirement, an exercise that tests safety and shooting proficiency in controlled settings.
“You look at law enforcement, you look at the military, they have very rigorous training because they’re walking around with firearms,” Andraca said. “Yet people can walk around with a loaded gun at Target without ever having fired their weapon before. That does not make the community safer.”
By and large, Democrats want to move in the opposite direction of their Republican colleagues, with bills introduced that would require firearm safety courses to renew gun licenses, including safe gun storage courses, and the option for people with a history of mental illness and crisis to put themselves on a “do not sell” list for handguns.
Given these diverging ideologies, and Republican control of the Legislature, how will Democrats advance their anti-gun trafficking laws?
Fitzgerald believes in the power of storytelling. By listening to students and families talk about their fears, grievances and tales of surving gun violence, it may be possible to have meaningful, bipartisan conversations about gun violence prevention, she said.
That’s something Ferrell-Zabala from Moms Demand Action has seen in her work. Twelve years ago, gun violence was the “third rail of political issues,” meaning a taboo subject. Now, she said, plenty of people are running and winning on the issue of gun violence, she said.
“It’s a prevalent issue in many, many people’s lives across this country. When I drop my child off at school, are they going to be safe? Will they be safe walking around neighborhoods, going to places of worship, the grocery store?” Ferrell-Zabala said.
Andraca and Fitzgerald both started their political careers advocating for stronger gun control laws through Moms Demand Action. For Andraca, none of the laws introduced interfere with Second Amendment rights. She’s a gun owner and a teacher.
Republican lawmakers haven’t been willing to have a public hearing on this topic, which has been a point of frustration for Andraca.
“I would have ask them, ‘What are you afraid of?’ I know our students and teachers are afraid every single day,” Andraca said. “I don’t think they should be afraid of their own voters.”
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Gun safety advocates rally at Wisconsin Capitol, saying laws can coexist with 2nd Amendment
Reporting by Natalie Eilbert, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
