Chief Ed Flynn calling for more resources for gun court in wake of weekend violence

Chief Ed Flynn said Tuesday that Milwaukee is in the throws of a social phenomena where arguments go to fists then someone getting a gun from their car in a matter of seconds.

After a violent holiday weekend that saw more than a dozen shootings and four homicides, the Chief said when it comes to catching felons with firearms "we need to do something predictable and strong."

He said he needs a more thoughtful approach to sanctions on gun offenders.

"Even if a sanction isn't necessarily severe, it's got to be certain. You're found guilty, you lose some freedom."

He said it would be helpful to open another gun court.

"If we've already got 1,000 guns seized, 40 people already murdered, we got a justification for another gun court."

If this sounds familiar it should.

For years CBS 58 News has been observing and reporting on gun court.

Last summer "Milwaukee at a Crossroads" was a one hour special on the problem and possible solutions to gun violence.

To see for yourself click here

At the time, Milwaukee County D.A. John Chisholm said this when asked how long he thinks it will take to reduce gun violence in the city of Milwaukee.

"The answer to that is what kind of urgency do we address the problems with?" Chisholm told CBS 58's Michele McCormack. If you approach it with the appropriate amount of resources and urgency then no it wont take generations."

He questioned  a tough approach when it comes to young offenders.

"How we address youthful offenders, that's a major concern in the community right now. I've heard the same calls that you've heard we have to just crack down on them, send more of them to jail and prison. But here's the challenge on that, is that the place that you want to send them is not working."

Longtime defense attorney Chris Cherella maintains that each offenders has to be sentenced on their particuliar case.

"You can't say that every person convicted of a firearms offense should be given a certain amount of time.You simply can't do that. Our federal courts have tried several times to have mandatory minimums and the court systems and members of congress have come out against it. It simply doesn't work."