Special Session on Gun Safety Rejected by GOP

On Thursday, Assembly Republicans rejected Governor Evers’s call for a special session on gun safety. The Governor called for legislation to close the background check loophole by requiring background checks for all firearm purchases and to create Extreme Risk Protection Orders (ERPO) for individuals in crisis. Both bills are supported by over 80% of Wisconsinites and are evidence based policies that have been proven to work.

Gun violence is now a public health crisis that plagues all of our communities across the state. When Governor Evers called on the Legislature to take action to reduce gun violence, I was hopeful that we would finally see a bipartisan effort to address this public health and safety crisis. It is disappointing, though sadly unsurprising, that Republicans again played politics with the safety of our communities.

States across the country have passed bipartisan legislation to address gun violence, but Wisconsin Republicans refuse to heed the call of the Governor and the people of our state. Meanwhile, criminals who are intent to harm others obtain guns by exploiting our background check loophole, and families lack the tools they need to keep firearms out of the hands of a loved one in crisis who poses a danger to themselves or others.

With only six months left in the legislative session, the time to act is now. Wisconsinites deserve to know that they and their children are safe from gun violence whether at school, at work, or out in the community. Extreme risk protection orders and background checks are common sense, evidence based policies proven to reduce gun violence without interfering with anyone’s 2^nd Amendment rights.

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A Small Win for Birth Control Access

On Thursday, the Assembly voted on AB 304. This bill permits pharmacists, under certain circumstances, to prescribe and dispense hormonal contraceptive patches and self-administered birth control pills to people who are at least 18 years of age. The bill passed on an 82-13 vote, and still needs to pass the Senate (which won’t be easy). 

Democrats have fought for years against a deluge of bad policies aimed at curbing access to birth control, but this vote was a small win and a motivator to keep pushing forward because every person who needs birth control should have easy and affordable access to it. 

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Caregiver Appreciation

This week was designated as Family Caregiver Week by Governor Evers.  This designation coincides with National Family Caregivers Month. Approximately 578,000 family caregivers provide about 538 million hours of care, without reaping the benefits of income, every year in Wisconsin. They provide a quality of life for their loved ones through assistance with daily tasks such as  hygiene and health care assistance, along with giving them as comfortable and safe of a life they can.

Caregivers often put the needs of others above their own, and this is why Governor Evers made this designation. It is a chance to recognize Wisconsin's family caregivers for all their hard work, and for what they experience every day to help their loved ones live with dignity. Thank you to the care givers, your work and dedication have not gone unnoticed.

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Wisconsin Fun Fact
This week would have marked Gov. James Duane Doty’s 220^th birthday. He was born in Salem, NY in 1799, and at age nineteen he moved to Detroit, practiced law, and by the age of twenty-four was appointed federal judge of the western Michigan Territory which included the land that would later become Wisconsin. He would eventually serve as Wisconsin’s second territorial governor, a delegate during Wisconsin’s first Constitutional Convention, would become one of Wisconsin’s first representatives to congress in 1849, and ultimately Utah’s fifth territorial governor until his death in 1865.  

However, before a lot of these accomplishments could be achieved by Doty, there needed to be a Wisconsin, and arguably Doty’s most lasting legacy was his role in creating a city on an isthmus, and then getting to designate that city as the capitol.

In 1836 Doty would make his way from Green Bay to what we now known as Madison with surveyor John Suydam, and subsequently would begin his quest to create the capitol city of Wisconsin. With $1500 and a hope to become wealthy far beyond that amount, he purchased 1,261 acres of land, created the original plat, named the streets after the original signers of the US Constitution, and named the city in honor of America’s fourth president, James Madison, who had died that same year.

Less than a month after the survey was finished, the territorial legislature met in the provisional capitol of Belmont, Wisconsin. Doty’s Madison was in the running for the capitol along with some stiff competition from Belmont, Green Bay, Milwaukee, and Dubuque. After 42 days and a win by one vote, Madison was chosen to become capitol.  Because of its geographic location, the decision was made mostly upon compromise since Madison was geographically between  thriving Green Bay and the lead mines, and between the Mississippi River and Lake Michigan.

There have been allegations Doty bribed delegates with things such as fine furs, but there were other cities near Madison that also wanted to be named capitol and those speculators became a coalition. However, it’s certain that without Doty, Madison would not be capitol, and maybe not even exist.

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