Milwaukee May Ban Employees Of City Contractors From Carrying Guns

Some Milwaukee Common Council members will try to ban employees of city contractors from carrying a gun while on the job.

The move comes after a photo surfaced of three white employees of a Hartford sewer repair firm carrying handguns while on a city job in a predominantly African-American neighborhood in Milwaukee. It’s unclear if the workers broke the law, but Milwaukee officials report the company has fired one of the men and suspended the others.

The neighborhood’s alderman, Russell Stamper II, wants the city to make it clear that employees of contractors can’t carry guns.

“If you want to work in the city of Milwaukee, you have to abide by the rules and you have to show some type of respect and concern for the community,” Stamper told reporters Wednesday.

City of Milwaukee employees are already banned from carrying guns on the job, the resolution would expand the ban to include workers contracted to do city jobs.

Stamper says if a resolution he’s drafting isn’t approved, Milwaukee should look at reducing the number of its outside contractors.

Milwaukee Alderman Robert Donovan would not say whether or not he’d support Stamper’s resolution, noting that the workers may have been concerned about street crime — perhaps justifying their decision to carry guns on the job.

“I just saw the picture and it’s disturbing. But it speaks volumes as to the times we are living in. It saddens me, but it’s reality,” Donovan said at a meeting of Milwaukee’s Public Works Committee.

Stamper argues the workers were giving the wrong impression about Milwaukee.