NEWS ISSUE OF THE MONTH
Wisconsin Can Do More to Prevent
Gun Violence BY DEB ANDRACA
If you’ve never been in a classroom during a lockdown drill, you’re lucky. Huddling in a closet or a corner away from doors and windows, in a classroom full of silent and scared students, is a situation none of us should have to experience. But this is just one example of how our gun violence epidemic has a negative effect on entire communities, including children, families, and people who don’t even own a gun. When I started volunteering for Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense, I met with my state legislators who told me that it was the criminals with guns that were the problem, not the law-abiding gun owners. Then after every violent incident, after every mass shooting, they would offer “thoughts and prayers” and little else to 12 | SHEPHERD EXPRESS
help prevent people in Wisconsin from being victimized. But as a mom, as a teacher, as a gun owner, and now as a state legislator, I know there are common-sense steps we can—and must—do to prevent gun violence. I was also told by my then-state representative that we don’t need any new gun laws, we should just do a better job of enforcing the ones we already have. Meanwhile, gun violence has been increasing, and over the past year the pandemic has intensified the impact. Gun sales have surged—there were around 22 million guns purchased in 2020 alone, a 64 percent increase over 2019. The laws on the books are not preventing this accumulating American arsenal.
GUNS KILL KIDS TOO While opponents of gun legislation like to say that “guns don’t kill people, people do,” what they neglect to mention is that many of those people are kids. Unintentional shootings are the second leading cause of death among children, increasing by nearly one-third during the pandemic when many young people had access to unlocked, unsecured guns in the home. Since mass shootings and homicides grab all the headlines, many are surprised to learn that in Wisconsin 70 percent of gun deaths are suicides. Guns are exceptionally effective at killing people and, as a result, are also a particularly devastating means of suicide. Only 4 percent of non-firearm suicide attempts result in
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