“I think that's the best thing we can do to save lives. I think that's the first step we need to take. You know, is one life, isn't that worth it? To go through a background check, just to save one life? 10 lives? I mean, when is enough enough?”
Last year in Milwaukee, close to 70 percent of gun homicide suspects possessed their guns illegally. They wouldn’t have passed a background check. That was the case with Radcliffe Haughton. Four years ago he walked he into the Azana Spa with a semiautomatic handgun, killing three people and injuring four more. Elvin Daniel lost his sister Zina that day, and it challenged his views on gun ownership laws. Now, he’s committed to lobbying for universal background checks.
Elvin Daniel has become an outspoken activist for what he calls “sensible gun laws” — including universal background checks — since his sister was killed in a mass shooting at a Brookfield, Wis. spa in 2012. The perpetrator, her estranged husband, was legally prohibited from buying a gun.
Photo Credit:
Coburn Dukehart
Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism
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