In January 1990, Ashford campaigned in Wisconsin against a right to bear arms amendment and criticized Nebraska's 1989 ballot initiative at a Madison, Wisconsin news conference. Attorney General Robert M. Spire, Representative Peter Hoagland, and Handgun Control, Inc. vice-chair Sarah Brady, who referred to the legislation as the "Nebraska Brady Bill", supported the legislation. On March 8, a compromise amendment reducing the waiting period to two days and it was approved with twenty-five to ten in favor. However, during first round voting later that day the state legislature voted twenty-one to twenty-one, with seven members not voting, failing to reach the twenty-five votes needed.