A new call for gun safety laws in Wisconsin is being made by a La Crosse area lawmaker, and local college students.
Democratic State Sen. Brad Pfaff and students Em Anderson and Evan Smazel from UW-La Crosse spoke outside the La Crosse County Courthouse on Friday, speaking about gun-related violence at schools.
Anderson spoke from her own personal experience. She was attending Waukesha South High School in 2019, when another student brought a weapon to school, and that student was shot and wounded by police. Anderson says her class thought the incident was a drill, until the emergency lasted for several minutes.
“Later, we learned that the student’s gun was not real,” said Anderson, but the trauma she experienced was real. “And yet, we were all still expected to go to school the next day, as if nothing had happened.”
Smazel recited a list of recent school shootings around the country, and asked “How much longer are we going to allow this list to get?”
Pfaff says gun safety bills are being passed in Congress, but he claims that some politicians are blocking new gun laws out of support for the National Rifle Association. “This should not be a controversial topic, to insure that our children can go to school, go to a mall, or go to a movie theater without fear that it may be the last thing they do.”
The state Democratic Party says the Pfaff event in La Crosse was timed to coincide with former President Donald Trump’s speech to the NRA annual meeting, and to accuse Trump and the GOP of supporting bills that would make schools and communities less safe.