Shooting victim's mother wants better tracking of guns
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By Tom Sheehan / Lee Newspapers
Saturday, March 19, 2005 10:16 PM CST
MADISON -- Jaki Marion was convicted of pulling the trigger on the gun that put three bullets into 21-year-old Kirk Bickham Jr.'s head during a triple homicide outside a north Milwaukee tavern Sept. 24, 2003.
Marion was ordered to serve three life sentences for the deaths of Bickham and two other men -- but Marion isn't the only one who should be held responsible, at least in part, for the shooting, said Bickham's mother, Debra Fifer.
Fifer said she thinks the people who helped put the gun in the hands of Marion, a convicted felon, also should be held accountable. But current Wisconsin law doesn't have enough clout, Fifer said. And the state doesn't even track gun sales between private individuals, which is how Marion is suspected of having gotten the gun, Fifer said.
As a result, Fifer and the mothers of the two other victims are pushing for a bill that would regulate gun sales between individuals in Milwaukee County.
She also is fighting a bill now working its way through the Legislature that would largely ban injury and death lawsuits against gun manufacturers, dealers and importers and others.
Fifer, who lives in Milwaukee, said she was running late and missed her chance to testify Thursday against Assembly Bill 56, which also would grant immunity to sportsmen's clubs and shooting range owners.
Instead, she spent part of the day at the Capitol, handing out literature and dodging in and out of legislative offices to promote what she's dubbed the Responsible Gun Ownership Bill. She wore a T-shirt that bore photos of her late child and Marion's two other victims. She and the other two mothers have formed a group known as Mothers Against Gun Violence.
At Fifer's prompting, state Sen. Spencer Coggs, D-Milwaukee, said he will introduce the responsible gun owner bill, which would, among other things, require Milwaukee County residents to register their guns and report gun sales between private individuals with the state Department of Justice.
Fifer said she at first wanted the law to apply statewide but said that might not be a realistic political goal. She's pushing similar legislation in the city and county of Milwaukee.
''I know they see things a lot differently, and they're not seeing the same things were seeing in Milwaukee,'' Fifer said of residents in more rural areas.
Unlike licensed gun dealers, private citizens who sell guns don't have to report sales to the state and otherwise routine background checks don't occur, said John Chisholm, an Milwaukee County assistant district attorney, who oversees firearms enforcement.
Marion told authorities he bought the gun from someone on the street for $150. The gun was never reported stolen, and authorities might never learn how the .380 caliber Bryco handgun found its way from a Madison gun dealer to Elvin's Ice House, a tavern on Port Washington Avenue in Milwaukee.
The weapon initially was purchased on Dec. 17, 1995, by Charles Anglemyer of Madison from Guns-A-Go, a now-defunct gun dealer that was at 1 S. Eau Claire Ave. in Madison, according to the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms National Tracing Center.
When reached by phone Friday, Anglemyer said he was unaware the weapon had been used in a triple homicide. He may have sold the gun years ago at a gun show in Milwaukee, but he wasn't sure. Anglemyer said he used to sell two or three guns a year at winter gun shows but since hasn't bought or sold many.
''I guess I just never gave it a thought that gun would be used in a homicide ... On the other hand, criminals are going to come up with a gun some place,'' Anglemyer said.
Because eight years elapsed between the initial purchase and when it was used in the homicide, it's unlikely the chain of possession for the gun that killed Bickham will every be fully traced, Chisholm said.
''This gun was out there for a long time, and it looks like it may have been bouncing from person to person,'' Chisholm said. The weapon was not traced to any other crimes, but as a convicted felon, Marion could not have legally bought it, Chisholm said.
Law enforcement officials might have a better chance of tracing weapons if purchases had to be reported, as proposed by Fifer, Chisholm said.
''That's sometimes where we run into a black hole,'' Chisholm said.
Anglemyer said he strongly supports gun owner rights, but would support a bill that required guns to be titled in a fashion similar to automobiles.
One solution might be a law similar to one in Illinois, where gun sales between individuals must be brokered by a licensed gun dealer, Chisholm said. The dealer could be allowed to collect a fee for initiating a background check, Chisholm said.
Coggs said his bill is being circulated among legislators for co-sponsors before being introduced.
Meanwhile, the bill that would reduce liability for gun makers, dealers, importers and others is working its way through the legislative process. State Rep. Mark Pettis, R-Hertel, who introduced AB 56, said it's necessary to prevent frivolous lawsuits that could put dealers and small gun manufacturers out of business.
Pettis said he's not aware of a successful case against a gun dealer in Wisconsin. But cases in other states have proven expensive, even though gun manufacturers win, Pettis said.
''It's going to come to a neighborhood near you. There hasn't been a successful one yet, but the cost of fighting one can bankrupt a small gunmaker or a club,'' Pettis said.
The bill also would protect hunting clubs and shooting range owners from liability. If a hunting club raffled off a gun as a prize, and that weapon later ended up being used to kill someone, the club could end up liable, Pettis said. Gun control advocates have turned to lawsuits in the courts because they haven't been successful at undermining gun owner rights through legislation, Pettis said.
State and local governments also would be prohibited from bringing ''nuisance'' lawsuits against gun manufacturers and others for allegedly contributing to societal ills. Several cities, including New York and Chicago, are trying to recover damages from gun manufacturers.
The Assembly Judiciary Committee is expected to approve Pettis' proposal in coming weeks, which would move the bill onto the full Assembly, said committee chairman Rep. Mark Gundrum, R-New Berlin. The bill was not drafted to protect non-licensed gun dealers, and it wouldn't cover people involved in illegal sales and activity, Gundrum said.
Fifer said she supports gun owner rights. But she wants dealers and manufacturers held responsible when those weapons fall into the hands of children or others, such as convicted felons, who have no legal right to possess them.
Marion, who has appealed his triple homicide conviction, was convicted of a felony for possessing a short-barreled shotgun or rifle April 15, 2001. The Wisconsin Court System's circuit court access Web site shows Marion also had faced several misdemeanor charges prior to the shootings.
Marion was 30 at the time he shot Bickham, who was seated in a car wearing a seatbelt when he was shot, Fifer said. The other victims, 24-year-old Carl Hall and 19-year-old DeShaun Winbush were on their way to the vehicle when shot, Fifer said.
Homicide remains the third leading cause of death among those ages 15 to 24 in Wisconsin, according to a study released last year by the Firearm Injury Center at the Medical College of Wisconsin. And in 2001, more than a third of handgun homicide suspects in southeastern Wisconsin were under age 21, according to center data.
In 2003, 197 people died as a result of homicide statewide, according to the state Department of Health and Family Services.
Tom Sheehan can be reached at tsheehan@madison.com or (608) 252-6198.
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