Gun Violence Tragedy Highlighted Proven Community-Based Efforts that need State Resources to Save Lives

MADISON - State Rep. David Bowen (D-Milwaukee) and Sen. Lena Taylor (D-Milwaukee) invited Reggie Moore, City of Milwaukee Director of the Milwaukee Office of Violence Prevention, to the Capitol earlier this week to host a legislative briefing on the work the Office has done to reduce violence in Milwaukee and the possibility to do more with the State of WI as a partner. This event was hosted in conjunction with several Criminal Justice related events put on by Rep. Bowen and Sen. Taylor during the final week of Black History Month. After the successful conclusion of this event, Rep. Bowen released the following statement:

“I was honored to host Director Reggie Moore at the Capitol, which tragically ended up 1 day before the gun violence tragedy at Molson Coors, to highlight the local progress being made by investing time and resources into high-need communities to reduce violence. At a time when our prisons are overcrowded and reactionary incarceration proposals would skyrocket prison populations and cost the government up to $1 Billion dollars, we need to properly fund these innovative prevention measures Statewide which are proven to reduce violence, especially gun violence.  Our bill creating a State Violence Prevention Fund is a great start and it’s time we become partners passing down resources to municipalities.”

The Milwaukee Office of Violence Prevention was established to take a public health approach to addressing violence with the goal of violence reduction. Through strategic partnerships, the Office has presided over a 34% decline of fatal shooting and a 28% decline of non-fatal shootings in Milwaukee from 2015-2019.

Rep. Bowen continued, “I was pleased to see such a bipartisan group of more than 20 lawmakers, staffers, and community members in attendance earlier this week to join us in this important & urgent conversation. These violence prevention measures not only make our communities safer, but show that investments made on the front-end will reduce the number of violent incidents and save money on the back-end.”

An archived video of the event can be found on WisconsinEye here.