Democratic lawmakers are seeking to reinstate Wisconsin's 48-hour handgun purchase waiting period, a proposal facing long odds in the Republican-held Legislature.

In 2015, GOP lawmakers, then in control of the state's government, repealed the handgun waiting period, which had been in place since the 1970s and allowed the state's Department of Justice time to conduct a background check of the purchaser.

Rep. Shelia Stubbs, D-Madison, said in a Wednesday news conference, the waiting period also acted as a guard against impulsive actions.

"Allowing purchases of firearms to be done on a whim opens the door to impulsive decisions, to result in terrible consequences," Stubbs asserted.

Since the pandemic began, Froedtert Hospital in Milwaukee has reported treating an "unprecedented number of patients for gunshot wounds." The bill is unlikely to pass the Legislature, as Republican lawmakers have repeatedly introduced legislation to loosen gun-control laws. Those proposals have been rejected by Democratic Gov. Tony Evers.

The proposal was introduced on the six-year anniversary of the murder of Caroline Nosal, who was shot and killed outside the grocery story where she worked on Madison's east side.

Dr. James Nosal, her father, said the 48-hour waiting period might have been enough to cause her killer, a former co-worker, to reconsider his plan.

"I'm not going to stand here and tell you that I can guarantee that a 48-hour waiting period would have saved my daughter's life," Nosal acknowledged. "But it might have given a troubled young man some time to get over his anger that he had lost his job because of his despicable behavior at work, and not because my daughter reported it."

Sen. Melissa Agard, D-Madison, hopes the bill will serve as a starting point for a broader discussion about gun control in Wisconsin.

"We know that it's not one piece of legislation that is going to solve the epidemic of gun violence in Wisconsin, but we need to start somewhere," Agard contended. "And this is a pragmatic solution."

According to a 2020 report from the state's Department of Health Services, nearly half of all recorded suicides from 2013 to 2017 were from a firearm. The same report noted the suicide rate in rural counties was slightly higher than in suburban and urban counties.

Support for this reporting was provided by The Carnegie Corporation of New York.

Gun-safety advocates in New Hampshire are urging Gov. Chris Sununu to back policies proven to reduce gun violence following a series of deadly shootings in the state.

Advocates will gather this week to set legislative priorities for the upcoming session, including efforts to close background-check loopholes and enforce extreme risk-protection orders.

Zandra Rice Hawkins, director of GunSense NH, a project of Granite State Progress, said no community is immune to gun violence.

"They're not immune in Lewiston, Maine, they're not immune in Concord, New Hampshire," Rice Hawkins asserted. "Unless we wrap our arms around this and really work together for more policy solutions, we're going to continue to have more loss."

Rice Hawkins pointed out lawmakers could also enact gun-free school zones in New Hampshire, a state currently blocking the enforcement of federal firearms laws.

Gun safety advocates said many of their proposals, including extended waiting periods between the purchase and delivery of a firearm and increased access to mental health services are both popular and bipartisan.

Rep. David Meuse, D-Portsmouth, argued mental health services must be combined with stronger gun laws to prevent both mass shootings and firearm-related suicides.

"One of the things I'm hoping that mental health can be kind of a point of agreement," Meuse explained. "And maybe a starting point for agreement on some other things down the road."

Meuse added the New Hampshire Hospital shooter was once involuntarily committed, which should have made him ineligible to purchase a firearm, yet New Hampshire is one of just three states not reporting such information to databases used in background checks for firearms purchases.

More than 1,300 Arizonans died by gun violence in 2021 according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

While mass shootings get widespread media attention, shootings can take place in many locations, including inside homes. A new study looks at the impacts children and adolescent survivors of gun violence face after being shot. The study found a year after being shot, younger survivors experienced higher rates of pain disorders, psychiatric disorders and an almost 150% increase in substance use disorders.

Kelly Drane, research director at the Giffords Law Center, said gun violence can have devastating effects on children and their families.

"One study found that they actually earn less money as adults if they've experienced gun violence as a child," Drane pointed out. "Because they kind of make choices and have a harder time learning in school and it impacts the kinds of careers that they have later in life."

Drane argued it is important to note the toll gun violence has on children does not stop with the bullet, but continues on and can last for generations. Studies and experts recommended enacting extreme risk laws to block those who pose a danger to themselves or others from obtaining a firearm. Additionally, secure storage laws would require people to store guns safely and prevent unsupervised access.

Drane recognized gun rights can be a very polarizing topic across the United States, but added there is consensus no one should feel afraid to go to the grocery store or fear their child might hurt themselves in a home where a firearm is present. She added people want safe communities and a majority support what she calls "common sense gun safety policies." Drane hopes things will improve.

"We are at a really interesting inflection point in our country," Drane observed. "Gun violence is at this really severe crisis point, but we also are seeing more states than ever really step up and pass the kind of laws that are necessary to combat this crisis. That is not to say that we don't need more, or that we are doing enough, but I think we are definitely seeing signs of progress."

Drane added as elections approach, she encouraged voters to get educated on where candidates stand on the issue and suggested Arizonans build what she calls a "safer culture," around firearms while preserving the Second Amendment right by using secure firearm storage practices.

New Mexico wants to curb gun violence by getting firearms off the street, and while recent gun buyback events drew lots of attendees, some experts say they haven't been found to reduce gun violence.

The New Mexico State Police hosted events in three cities, offering participants gift cards worth $200 for handguns and $300 for long guns.

Mark Anderson, professor of economics at Montana State University, helped prepare a 2021 study by the National Bureau of Economic Research. He said it found "no evidence" gun buyback programs reduce gun crime.

"We tried to collect data on as many gun buyback programs as we could identify in cities that also have firearm-related crime data available," Anderson recounted. "It was the largest-scale analysis of gun buyback programs in the United States."

Anderson believes other measures, such as safe-storage ordinances requiring firearms in the home be kept in a locked container or secured with a locking device, could be more effective than gun buybacks. He speculated people who voluntarily turn over firearms are not those who pose the greatest threat to society.

The events allowed any participant turning in a firearm to remain anonymous in exchange for a gift card. But after some turned in as many as 60 guns, the gift cards were gone quickly, and some went home without.

Anderson stressed while well-meaning, such programs may not be the solution.

"I think about the opportunity costs and the resources that are used to implement them," Anderson emphasized. "Could they be used elsewhere more effectively? And I think the answer to that is probably, yes, so I think about it as not an all-or-nothing type thing I think about it as more of a, 'maybe we should pivot and do something else.'"

In September, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham declared gun violence a public health emergency after an 11-year-old boy was shot to death in Albuquerque while returning home from a basketball game.