Milwaukee Area - Recent Handgun "Twilight Zone"

The Incidents

Friday - A West Allis (Milwaukee suburb) policeman noticed a minivan, with Illinois license plates and a driver behind the wheel, parked in a school parking lot. When the policeman came around a second time, the minivan drove off. The officer noticed that his brakelights were not working and pulled him over. When the officer came near the minivan, a shot came through the window - the driver had shot himself. A suicide note in the minivan provided proof that this man had killed a Chicago judge's husband and mother earlier in the week. He was suspected of being in the Milwaukee area to find and harm two more judges or their families - all because he had been unsuccessful in numerous medical malpractice lawsuits.

Saturday - at about 12:50pm CST, a 44-year-old man from New Berlin (Milwaukee suburb) walked into a church service at the Sheraton Hotel in Brookfield (MIlwaukee suburb) and fired 22 rounds at members a Living Word of God congregation. He killed 7 people before taking his own life.



Too Close For Comfort

My friend and I had attended a Saturday morning meeting in New Berlin that ended at 2pm. We decided to head back home by going north on Mooreland Road, then west on I-94. About a mile from the Mooreland Road - I-94 intersection, we heard on the radio that someone had shot numerous people at the Sheraton Hotel - located at the very intersection we were headed towards! I thought we ought to turn around or head in another direction - as the radio report gave no information as to whether or not the gunman was at large. However, we kept moving, I guess, half assuming that the police would be re-routing traffic and half curious about what we might see. We turned on to the I-94 entrance ramp and looked down to see the hotel parking lot ringed with police tape and numerous squad cars in the vacinity. It was only later on our drive home, that we found out that the crime scene had been on the opposite side of the hotel and heard of the gunman's suicide.



Atlanta, Chicago, Milwaukee

So much handgun violence - in just the last few days. I think about the mantra that many of my "gun-owning" friends, co-workers, and NRA members recite: "Guns don't kill, people do." and "You can't stop every wacko...etc". Yet the friends and neighbors of these gunmen all tell us that they did not consider them to be "wacko" or capable of such acts. My immediate response is that: "Handguns are made to kill." (You cannot convince me that they are made for hunting or target shooting.) We must make it more difficult to obtain and use handguns. These victims and their families deserve nothing less.