MADISON, Wis. — Wisconsin’s Democratic governor on Tuesday created a new agency dedicated to gun violence prevention, a month after a shooting school not far from the Capitol.
Gov. Tony Evers also called on the Republican-controlled Legislature to pass a series of gun control and public safety measures, saying reducing violence must be a “shared priority that transcends politics.”
The Legislature has already rejected numerous gun control measures proposed by Evers, including universal background checks for gun purchases. But Evers said it to shoot at Abundant Life Christian School last month demonstrated the need for lawmakers to act.
“Reducing crime and violence should be an issue that receives serious bipartisan support,” Evers said at a news conference surrounded by gun control advocates, Democratic lawmakers and the mayor and police chief of Madison responding to the school shooting of last month.
Evers signed an executive order establishing a national violence prevention agency. He said the office will work with local partners, including law enforcement agencies, nonprofits, school districts and gun store owners, with the goal of reducing gun violence.
The agency will also work to develop public education campaigns and promote safer communities, Evers said. It will also award grants aimed at reducing violence, especially gun violence, to school districts, firearms dealers, law enforcement agencies, nonprofits and government agencies.
Evers announced $10 million in federal funding for the office. He said his state budget, which will be presented to the Legislature next month, will call for more state funding to continue the office for the next two years.
Evers also said he would propose a sweeping gun violence and public safety package.
The Republican majority in the House shrank after the November elections, causing Evers and Democrats to say they hoped for more bipartisanship and considering ideas that have been summarily dismissed in the past. But after the Dec. 16 shooting at the Abundant Life Christian School in Madison that left a student, lecturer and the 15-year-old shooter dead, Republicans have not expressed support for gun control measures supported by Democrats.
Polls in Wisconsin repeatedly show strong public support for a variety of gun control measures.
Evers called a special session of the Legislature in 2019 to pass a universal gun background check bill and a “red flag” proposal that would allow judges to take away guns from people determined to be a risk to themselves or others to form. Republicans immediately suspended without debating the measures. It was the first of one dozens of special sessions Evers has been calling since 2019, none of those have been successful.
Democrats have reintroduced these and more than two dozen other gun safety laws over the past six years, but Republicans have repeatedly refused to adopt them. Republicans have instead introduced and debated bills that would expand access to guns arming teachers. Evers in 2022 vetoed Republican bills that would have allowed concealed carry permit holders to have firearms in vehicles on school grounds and in churches on private school property.