After More Shooting Deaths, Milwaukee Forum To Focus On Gun-Related Violence

With five more people falling victim to gun-related deaths in Wisconsin this week, federal legislators and community leaders are gathering for a weekend forum in Milwaukee to seek solutions for the violence.

The five people who died from gunshot wounds did so in Milwaukee, Madison and Beloit. These deaths brings the gun-related death total to 61 for the year so far.

Robert France, 46, of Portland, Ore., died on Saturday morning after being shot in a hotel parking lot in Madison. Police said the killing was apparently a drug money robbery. Meanwhile, Jennifer Falcon, 44, died of a gunshot wound to the head after a shooting in Beloit on early Sunday morning. Police are still investigating that killing. Also on Sunday in Milwaukee, Vincent Fayne, 39, died after being shot outside a Milwaukee strip club. Sidney Key, 29, died from wounds that he sustained when he was shot on July 9. On Tuesday, Jimmy Nash, 30, was killed outside a Milwaukee restaurant on the city’s north side.

The majority of Wisconsin’s gun-related deaths have occurred in inner city Milwaukee. Thirty eight of this year’s 61 deaths took place in Milwaukee.

With these deaths and others in mind, U.S. Rep. Gwen Moore, D-Wis., is holding the Gun Violence Community Forum at the African American Women’s Center in Milwaukee on Saturday afternoon.

The Rev. Willie Briscoe, who heads the Group MICAH — a coalition of Milwaukee inner city churches — plans to attend the event. He said talking about solutions is important, but the focus should be on the cause of the violence, not violence itself.

“No one wants to address what’s behind all this is this unabated poverty that has existed in this country, especially in the poorer areas for years. And ’till we can alleviate that, it’s going to be really tough to do that on the other end and just blame it on guns,” Briscoe said.

On the panel for Saturday’s meeting is veteran U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., who has worked with gang members in her district to reduce violence, and Rep. Marcia Fudge, D-Ohio, who is the chair of the Congressional Black Caucus.