» Seized weapons:
Barrett backs legislation, funds
Mayor Tom Barrett touts the rate of illegal weapons seized during criminal activity in Milwaukee and pushes for more state funding and legislation to keep firearms out of the hands of criminals.
Mayor Tom Barrett leaned over a table filled with guns Sunday afternoon and examined them closely.
A Ruger 9mm, AK-47 rifle, pink .32-caliber handgun, Uzi-style firearm, sawed-off shotgun, FN 5.7mm handgun, SKS rifle, MAC-10 pistol and a Glock handgun outfitted with a 50round drum magazine.
“You can see how fresh these are. These are just since Jan. 1,” Barrett said, turning over ID tags attached to the weapons showing the recovery date. “It’s bad stuff.”
At a news conference at the District 7 police station on Fond du Lac Ave., the mayor touted the rate of illegal weapons seized during criminal activity in Milwaukee and pushed for more state funding and legislation to keep firearms out of the hands of criminals.
In the first 47 days of 2017, Milwaukee police have recovered 337 firearms associated with criminal activity. Last year, 2,419 guns were seized from criminals, a rate of 406 guns per 100,000 residents. Barrett displayed a chart that shows Milwaukee police recover weapons in criminal activity at a much higher rate than Philadelphia, 253 guns per 100,000 residents; Chicago, 246; Los Angeles, 155; and New York, 43.
He said the number of nonfatal shootings in Milwaukee has gone up each year since Wisconsin’s concealed-carry law passed in 2011 and the number of fatal shootings has increased every year except one since 2011.
Barrett talked about some of the guns confiscated last week, including a loaded AR-47 from a passenger in a vehicle stopped for excessive tinting on windows, a teenager who ran from police and threw a handgun onto a porch, and three males who were stopped while traveling in a stolen vehicle, fleeing on foot and tossing a firearm.
“Look at what they’re up against. This is something you wouldn’t want your son or daughter to face in their job,” Barrett said while flanked by four District 7 police officers. “We are asking them to face it, and they’re doing it professionally. But they need help.”
The mayor called on state lawmakers to pass pending legislation that would bar someone convicted of three misdemeanors within five years of possessing a firearm. He also asked for more state money to fund the Milwaukee Police Department.
Barrett said the police budget of roughly $302.1 million is larger than the city’s tax levy of around $263.8 million.
“That means we need better relations with Madison. The financial relationship is basically broken. The money we receive that, by and large, goes into the Police Department has been frozen or shrunken in the last 15 years,” said Barrett.