Calvin Mattheis Milwaukee Police Chief Ed Flynn speaks during a press conference to announce the launch of the COPS collaborative.

Milwaukee Police Chief Edward Flynn has said it's impossible to ignore the correlation between rising homicides and the proliferation of firearms.

"When you dramatically ease the availability of firearms and maintain weak criminal penalties, you of course facilitate the use of deadly violence among those committed to a criminal lifestyle and innocent victims affected by the crossfire," Flynn said.

He was not alone in his assertion. Other chiefs raised the same concern during a meeting last summer in Washington, D.C., about rising gun violence. About 40% of departments surveyed reported more shootings involving multiple firearms and officers finding more shell casings at the scenes.

In Milwaukee, homicides jumped 69% from 2014 to 2015. By comparison, nonfatal shootings saw only a 9% increase, according to preliminary information from the city's Homicide Review Commission.

"Are we seeing more multiple-wound homicide victims?" said Mallory O'Brien, an epidemiologist who leads the commission. "More single wounds to the head or chest? Are more of the victims dying in the field, not even getting medical services?"

Those are questions the commission expects to answer in its 2015 annual report, which will be released this year.

Mayor Tom Barrett and Flynn say they will continue calling for tougher penalties when people are caught carrying guns in violation of the law. The two counted a victory late last year when Gov. Scott Walker signed a law boosting minimum prison time for felons possessing guns.

Flynn and Barrett have continued to single out Wisconsin's concealed carry law as a possible factor in rising violence. Felons cannot get a permit and are prohibited from carrying guns, but people with misdemeanor convictions can get one, unless the crimes involved domestic violence. In addition, carrying a gun without a permit is a misdemeanor no matter how many times someone does it.

How many homicides and shootings involved a permit-holder? Milwaukee police say it's impossible to know from their records because Wisconsin's concealed carry law prohibits law enforcement agencies from sorting their records by whether anyone involved had a permit.

Of the gun homicides the department had cleared at the end of 2015, 64% of the suspects or an accomplice possessed a gun illegally — meaning the person was a felon, under the age of 18 or an adult who previously was found delinquent of a felony offense in juvenile court.

"It's a little bit of a red herring to concentrate on the felon part because there are so many career misdemeanants," Flynn said.

Nik Clark, president of gun rights advocacy group Wisconsin Carry Inc., has said the problem seems to lie with the criminal justice system offering plea bargains that drop offenses from felonies to misdemeanors rather than the concealed-carry law.

To which Flynn responds: "An overwhelmed court system has to do what it has to do."

Clark has characterized Flynn's remarks as a distraction from the question of "why are so many dangerous criminals put back on the streets of Milwaukee weekly by the criminal justice system."

Milwaukee Police Association president Michael Crivello has pointed to the department's policy limiting pursuits as a factor, saying "the safest place for a criminal to keep guns and drugs are in a vehicle."

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"It has become common knowledge of criminals that the police will generally not chase," he said. "Therefore they flee without concern."

The policy does allow for officers to chase if an occupant has committed a violent crime or is a threat to the safety of others. Flynn dismissed the idea of the policy playing a role, noting the city saw high levels of homicide even when there was very permissive pursuit policy.

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