MADISON – A month ago Assembly Democrats attempted to pass Assembly Bill 65, a bill introduced by State Representative Terese Berceau (D-Madison) requiring universal background checks on firearm purchases in Wisconsin. Democratic efforts then were stymied by Assembly Republicans who, refusing to vote on background checks for gun purchases, instead pulled several procedural stunts, and ultimately gutted Democrats’ universal background check proposal.
Today, Assembly Republicans amended Assembly Bill 1031 with an amendment relating to firearm background checks that, remarkably, did nothing to address the gun show loophole or private gun sales. State Representative Melissa Sargent (D-Madison) re-released the following statement concerning Republicans’ continued refusal to adopt universal background checksin Wisconsin:
“Republicans should have to justify their actions today, and they should have to answer to every child who is afraid to go to school, every teacher who is afraid to go to work, and every family who has been affected by gun violence due to Republican inaction.
I stood with high school students from our community in the Capitol just last week while they begged Wisconsin lawmakers to take action on gun violence. And yet, based on Republicans’ theatrics this afternoon, it’s clear our kids’ pleas didn’t just fall on deaf ears, they fell on ears that just don’t give a damn
Inaction is complicity. It’s not a matter of if the next shooting is going to occur, it’s when, and it could happen in our watch in Wisconsin if Republicans don’t start acting like the adults our kids expect us to be.”
Melissa Sargent is a State Representative in the Wisconsin Assembly, representing the 48th Assembly District, which covers the east and north sides of the city of Madison and the village of Maple Bluff.