Sierra Guyton, 10, (left) and Laylah Peterson, 5, are among at least 11 Milwaukee children killed by errant gunfire since 1995. Credit: Family photos

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On Thursday night, 5-year-old Laylah C. Petersen became one of about 300 Americans per year killed by stray bullets.

Laylah, who was sitting on her grandfather's lap when a bullet pierced the wall of her home and struck her in the head, joins Sierra Guyton, 10, fatally shot on a playground in May, and at least nine other Milwaukee children killed by errant gunfire since 1995.

On Friday, city residents were once again left with this question: "What can we do?"

While the answer is multifaceted, one thing is clear, according to Joshua Horwitz, executive director of the Washington, D.C.-based Educational Fund to Stop Gun Violence.

"We've got to do better."

Horwitz and other national experts, in town for a previously scheduled symposium on preventing gun violence, have some concrete ideas on where to start.

Universal background checks for gun purchases are a fundamental first step, they said. But background checks as they currently exist often target the wrong people. Violent misdemeanor convictions, for example, are a good predictor of future gun violence but don't stand in the way of legal gun purchases in Wisconsin.

People who lawfully bought guns after being convicted of two violent misdemeanors were 10 to 15 times more likely to later be arrested for murder, rape or aggravated assault than gun buyers without that kind of criminal record, according to a study conducted by Garen J. Wintemute, a physician and the Baker-Teret chair in violence prevention at the University of California-Davis School of Medicine.

"There are guns, and there are dangerous people, and when you put them together, you increase the risk," said Jeffrey Swanson, a professor in psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the Duke University School of Medicine.

The experts would like to see people convicted of a single violent misdemeanor barred from buying a gun for 10 years.

People with two or more drunken driving convictions or misdemeanor drug convictions within five years should be barred from purchasing or possessing guns for five years, since alcohol and drug abuse are known risk factors for violence, according to the experts, all part of a coalition known as the Consortium for Risk-Based Firearm Policy.

In Wisconsin, as long as the misdemeanors aren't related to domestic violence, numerous convictions can't stop someone from legally purchasing a gun and obtaining a concealed carry permit. Milwaukee Police Chief Edward Flynn has long campaigned for that to change.

Flynn also wants to see the crime of illegally carrying a concealed weapon upgraded from a misdemeanor to a felony with a minimum three-year jail term.

That wouldn't be necessary if people with violent misdemeanor records are barred from possessing a gun in the first place, as is the case in California, Wintemute said. If those people are later caught with a firearm, they face felony charges.

People in crisis — mental health or otherwise — also need to be temporarily denied access to guns they already own, the researchers said.

To that end, the consortium recommends legislation to establish gun violence restraining orders. This would allow family members who believe their loved ones are at risk of harming themselves or others to petition a court and ask that their guns be seized until the crisis passes.

Research has shown that tightening rules for legal gun purchases also has reduced the prevalence of illegal guns, Wintemute said.

Tough sentences for career criminals in possession of guns and for people who legally buy guns and give or sell them to criminals can help prevent gun violence, according to James Santelle, U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Wisconsin. But law enforcement is just one part of the solution.

"We need to fire on all of these cylinders — and hope there is a piece of it that does prevent the 5-year-old from getting killed — instead of the default of doing nothing," he said.