Smith and Wesson handguns are displayed during the 2015 NRA Annual Meeting and Exhibits in Nashville, Tenn. A new report found Wisconsin gun deaths have increased since 2002. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
Jenevia Blanks’ young cousin was killed by gun violence, Blanks wrote in personal testimony included in a report released Tuesday that analyzes gun deaths in Wisconsin.
The Wisconsin Examiner’s Criminal Justice Reporting Project shines a light on incarceration, law enforcement and criminal justice issues with support from the Public Welfare Foundation.
“I want to keep sending a message to legislators that this violence is an epidemic, and something has to be done,” said Blanks, who volunteers with the advocacy group Moms Demand Action. “It’s not acceptable that we keep having so many lives cut short by gun violence.”
Firearms claimed the lives of 762 Wisconsinites in 2023, according to a report from the Wisconsin Anti-Violence Effort (WAVE) Educational Fund and the Violence Policy Center. This included suicides, homicides and other firearm deaths.
The total number marks a decline from the 830 deaths reported for 2022 and the 793 deaths reported for 2021. The report also says that rates of overall suicide and firearm suicide in Wisconsin are similar to national rates, while homicide and firearm homicide rates are lower in Wisconsin than in the nation.
However, overall rates of firearm suicides and firearm homicides have increased in Wisconsin since 2002. Since 2020, firearm deaths have reportedly outpaced motor vehicle deaths in Wisconsin.
“One death from gun violence is too many,” Nick Matuszewski, associate executive director of the WAVE Educational Fund, said in a statement. “But 762 deaths is a disgrace and an urgent call to take the kind of actions that have been proven to save lives.”
The 762 deaths include 502 firearm suicides and 236 firearm homicides. The report includes findings related to sex, age, race and ethnicity and rural and urban areas.
WAVE reports that in 2023, suicides took up a larger percentage of firearms deaths in rural Wisconsin (88.5%) than in urban Wisconsin (58.2%).
According to the report, guns were used in 54.6% of suicides and 83.1% of homicides in Wisconsin.
Black residents of Wisconsin were 40 times more likely to die by firearm homicide than white residents. The report states that an annual study by the Violence Policy Center found that Wisconsin had the fourth highest rate of Black homicide victimization in the nation in 2023.
In 2023, 8,441 firearms were recovered in Wisconsin and traced, according to WAVE, most of which were handguns. The report found that 84.9% of firearms recovered in Wisconsin originated in the state.
The study was released the day before the Emergency Gun Violence Summit, which will take place Wednesday in Milwaukee.
States with weak gun laws, including Wisconsin, experience more firearm deaths among children ages 0 to 17, according to a study published in the June issue of JAMA Pediatrics.
“We cannot accept that harsh reality as normal,” said Nick Matuszewski, associate executive director at WAVE Educational Fund, a statewide grassroots organization dedicated to preventing gun violence. “This study provides dramatic evidence that when lawmakers step up and take action, they can save young lives.”
The study, authored by national public health researchers using data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, found that in Wisconsin, which was categorized as one of 28 states with the most permissive gun laws, child firearm deaths increased by 15%. The most affected group nationally was African American children.
The study examined a period of time before and after a 2010 Supreme Court ruling that expanded local and state control over firearms laws.
After that ruling, many states enacted new and more permissive firearm laws, according to the report. The study looked at all types of firearm deaths, including suicides, homicides and unintentional shootings.
In 2015, Wisconsin ended its 48-hour waiting period to purchase firearms, said Tyler Kelly, policy and engagement senior associate at WAVE.
Kelly said many neighboring states and others across the country have strengthened their laws on background checks.
“In Wisconsin, we have no red flag law, weak storage laws and a lack of a waiting period for buying a firearm,” Kelly said. “All have been shown to save lives.”
Reaction from state leaders
State Sen. LaTonya Johnson, D-Milwaukee, said the findings of the study are no surprise to anyone who lives in Milwaukee.
“We see the consequences of this inaction in every child that dies and every family that grieves,” Johnson said. “Most of the kids killed by gun violence in Wisconsin come from right here in our city.”
New Milwaukee Public Schools Superintendent Brenda Cassellius said during a recent interview that 24 students in the district were victims of homicide this school year. Most were shot.
New legislation, same old story
Johnson is among a group of Democratic elected officials who are pushing their Republican counterparts to move forward the Safe Summer package of legislation that would revamp the state’s gun laws.
“I’m always hopeful, but if I’m being realistic, over and over again, Republican leadership has refused to debate common-sense gun safety proposals,” Johnson said. “Even a hearing would be a step forward at this point. I don’t believe that’s too much to ask.”
Championing the legislation is Democratic State Rep. Shelia Stubbs of Madison. She experienced a mass shooting at a school in her district in December 2024.
“That day was a really difficult day for me. As a parent, I cried,” she said. “I don’t know how many more people must die from gun violence in the state of Wisconsin.”
The Safe Summer package includes four bills. They would reinstitute the 48-hour waiting period to purchase a firearm; create an extreme-risk protection order, also known as a red flag law; ban ghost guns; and institute universal background checks for all firearm purchases.
“We need better gun laws to keep guns out of the wrong hands,” Stubbs said.
Gov. Tony Evers included similar measures in his last budget request, but they were removed by Republican lawmakers on the Joint Committee on Finance.
NNS reached out to several Republican elected officials from Wisconsin for comment, but they did not respond.
Republican leaders in Wisconsin and Second Amendment advocates have said over the years that gun violence is tied to a lack of accountability for criminals and not gun ownership.
Stubbs and others disagree. She said the Republicans in Wisconsin refuse to discuss gun control legislation.
‘We need better gun laws’
“We need better gun laws to keep guns out of the wrong hands,” she said. “It’s important to talk about the gun safety legislation to regulate access to firearms and promote responsible gun ownership.”
Kelly said polls have found that the majority of Wisconsinites support stronger gun laws, including universal background checks and waiting periods to purchase guns.
“If you’re using the gun for the right reasons, you shouldn’t have a problem waiting two days for it. “People in crisis shouldn’t be able to get a gun at the snap of their hands.”
Stubbs said another major issue that the legislation would resolve is closing a loophole that allows private sales of firearms without background checks.
“Those are transactions that do not get vetted,” she said.
A universal issue
While proposed gun laws often become a partisan issue in Wisconsin and around the country, Stubbs hopes that changes.
She said Democrats are looking for a Republican co-sponsor for the bills, calling gun violence a universal issue that affects everyone.
“At the end of the day, many of my colleagues are parents. They have loved ones. Gun violence has impacted all of us in one way or another,” Stubbs said.
Her hope is that something gets done before the next tragedy.
“I hope it doesn’t take something more to happen before we do something,” she said. “We want everyone to have a safe summer. Enough is enough.”
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