Wisconsin Capitol display honors children lost to gun violence; lawmakers renew push for gun safety as memorial grows
MADISON Wisc. (CBS 58) -- Inside the Wisconsin state capitol, the entire month of June, there will be photos of Wisconsin children lost to gun violence.
It serves as a powerful reminder of the human toll. The senator who began displaying these pictures in the Capitol rotunda State Sen. LaTonya Johnson started doing so in 2023. The state senator from Milwaukee says each year the memorial grows, despite her efforts to pass gun reform which she feels will solve the issues of gun violence across the state.
State Senator LaTonya Johnson
According to the Wisconsin Anti Violence Effort, 87% of Wisconsinites including 83% of republicans support universal background checks. Senator Johnson says the legislation she keeps bringing forward continues to fail in the legislature.
“If we are not going to do legislation to prevent their deaths then we are going to make it uncomfortable for people to walk past these children and not acknowledge the fact that they were here and they mattered,” Johnson said.
Wisconsin law currently allows private gun sales without background checks, which gun safety advocates say is leading to gun getting the wrong hands.
“Gun violence is the leading cause of death for kids and teens in this country and in this state,” Nick Matuszewski the executive director of the WAVE Educational Fund said.
Another concern for this organization and others is the planned closure of the State Office of Violence Prevention.
The office was created by executive action in January 2025 and is expected to shut down when its funding runs out at the end of this year. A closure that these advocates worry will make gun violence worse in the state.
“These are programs where you work with individuals that are most at risk of being both perpetrators and victims of gun violence and ensure that they are given everything they need to break out of these cycles of violence that they have been trapped in,” Matuszewski said.
As the names and faces of the display and the capitol grow year over year leadership at the capitol is set to change too. Assembly Speaker Robin Vos is retiring, and Wisconsin Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu is not seeking re-election.
Democrats are hopeful they can gain the majority in the senate and potentially the assembly. If they do, they are hopefully that new leadership can mean a change in the way the legislature handles its response to gun safety.
“Making sure that people have legal purchases only protects everyone involved because no one wants to lose a life due to senseless gun violence,” Senator Johnson said.
Another law these advocates would like passed is an Extreme risk law. According to WAVE, extreme risk laws allow families and law enforcement officers to ask a judge for an extreme risk protection order (ERPO). An ERPO can temporarily prohibit someone from purchasing or possessing a gun, if they are at imminent risk of harming themselves or others.
A Marquette Law School poll from March of 2025 found 85% of Wisconsinites want extreme risk laws, including 79% of Republicans and 98% of Democrats.