Milwaukee recorded 362 nonfatal shootings through August this year, the highest eight-month number since 428 in 2006, reports the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. The Homicide Review Commission began tracking the data after a Journal Sentinel series in 2006 on gun violence. August 2013 had the third-highest monthly number of nonfatal shootings – 78 – since the Homicide Commission began keeping those records. There was an “epidemic spike” in violence this summer, said Stephen Hargarten, emergency medicine department chairman at the Medical College of Wisconsin. He argued that if a city takes firearm violence seriously, the discussion to address it should not be limited to criminal justice. All options should be explored, and Milwaukee has made progress in the last 20 years, he said. The commission tracks demographics and circumstances of shootings. An argument or fight was involved in 27 percent of nonfatal shootings in 2012. Robbery was a factor in 25 percent, 7 percent were drug-related and 42 percent had “unknown” factors.