BriOnna Givens had put in a long, painful day on her feet as a nurse’s aide.

It was the height of the COVID pandemic, October 2020, and fear of the delta variant was rampant at the nursing home and other facilities where Givens worked as an agency nurse.

She was in constant pain from sciatica in her back, which ached so much that she had stopped at an urgent care clinic on her way home and was prescribed a muscle relaxant.

The job wasn’t her only stress.

In an incident a few months earlier, a man had put a gun to Givens’ head, threatening to kill her. No one had been charged, so Givens, 31, decided to get a gun to protect her three young children and herself.

It all left her exhausted and worried.

At night, Givens would lie awake as her children slept, listening for any noise in their small apartment on the north side of Milwaukee, her loaded gun tucked between her mattress and box spring.

Now, this day finally over, she l...