Wednesday, October 23, 2013

Fifty Women a Month Die by Guns in Domestic Violence Incidents

October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month, but most people are in fact unaware. One reason is that Republicans in congress frittered away most of the month by closing the government and creating a manufactured crisis over the debt ceiling.
But the statistics on domestic violence and guns ought to get our attention. If October is like every other month, nearly 50 women in the U.S. will be murdered with a gun by an intimate partner — overwhelmingly a husband or boyfriend. We’ve had so many mass shootings in places like Tucson, Aurora, Newtown, and the Navy Yard that it would be easy to conclude gun violence knows no gender. But that’s not quite true.
Women are over three-and-a-half times more likely than men to be killed by an intimate partner. And a gun in a household with a history of domestic violence increases that risk by twenty fold. Stalkers also use guns to harm their victims — and you guessed it — more than 75 percent of those victims are female.
A few common sense changes in the law would make women safer. For starters, we need to close the loopholes on background checks for gun ownership. Right now, if you want a gun without submitting to a background check, just pick one up at a gun show or online. No problem — no questions asked.
True, it’s against the law for people convicted of domestic violence or subject to restraining orders to buy a gun. But even that paltry prohibition doesn’t cover dating partners — federal law only protects women victimized by spouses or co-parents. And if someone already owns a gun when convicted, they don’t necessarily have to surrender it. A lot of the time they get to keep it to use another day.
Stalkers are usually home free too, even if convicted. Only seven states bar them from buying or owning guns. There’s no federal ban at all, despite the often increasingly violent nature of their behavior.

23 comments:

  1. Thank you. This is a great post. Women need to take note and we definitely need this information to be more public. Lives are at risk every day.

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  2. Any woman (or man) who stays in an abusive relationship gets what they deserve. You pro-choice people surely should realize that. They have a choice to stay or leave.
    Let the excuses begin.

    orlin sellers

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    1. Just as you have a choice, to leave the US or be disarmed.

      We have no place for subversive Communist sympathisers such as yourself in our society. It would be foolish to allow you to bear arms. Either you learn your station in life or you leave.

      Delete
    2. Any woman ... who stays in an abusive relationship gets what they deserve.

      For starters, I'm going to assume that you don't really mean what you said. But if that really is where you are coming from, I have some suggestions.

      Maybe try to reconnect with your parents or anyone in your family who cares about you. A friend that you can talk to. I hate to proselytize, but it wouldn't be a bad idea to start going to church a few times as the calendar moves into Thanksgiving, Advent and Christmas. You need to understand the Gospel of Jesus Christ, or at least some moral equivalent. You need to know what it means to love your neighbor, to forgive others, to ask for forgiveness. If you are amenable, start in the Gospel of St. John. Learn what it means to worship in spirit and in truth. Then read the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew. It's never too late.

      Delete
    3. Orlin does mean what he said, going by his usual extreme positions that he expresses. What I'm wondering is why the other pro-gun commenters are condoning such hateful shit with their silence.

      Do you guys not find Orlin's blaming the victims of domestic abuse offensive? Aren't you guys the ones who keep saying the guy who pulls the trigger is the one responsible? Why all the silence, Greg, Tennessean, TS, ss?

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    4. Mikeb, Orlin has his position, and he has the right to it. I support having shelters available for victims of domestic violence, but the fact is that in most cases, the victims do have to take a step to save themselves. But whether I comment or not is no indication that I condone the idea in question. You're merely being tedious.

      Flying Junior, I prefer that people find Asatru or Hellenismos, religions that promote the value of the individual and a belief in the old gods.

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    5. Why have you not condoned BANtheNRA’s talk of disarming the US, Mike? Hey, I get chastised for my “silence” before I even read something. But you approved the comment, so you can’t say you haven’t read it. I know you’ve said many many times that you don’t wish to disarm the entire country (just a majority), but I expect you still speak out against such extreme positions every single time someone says it. Otherwise I am just going to assume that you have evolved into supporting complete civilian disarmament by condoning it with your silence. Fair?

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    6. Failing to state that I disagree with the degree of "ban" is one thing, but failing to call someone out for saying that 50 women a month deserve death is quite another.

      Delete
    7. The subversiveness of domestic communist trolls knows no bounds.

      Delete
    8. Besides, I have the impression BNNtheNRA is just fucking with us. He won't last long here with the nonsense we've seen so far. It'll either improve a tiny bit away from the spam-like bullshit or it'll start getting my delete button.

      Delete
    9. I meant exactly what I said. If someone is physically or mentally abusive to you, get the hell out. If you stay, you are gonna get what you deserve for being a dumb ass.

      orlin sellers

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    10. Orlin, your stupid extreme statements combined with your inability to back down have really put you in a corner this time.

      Your position is 50 women a month who are murdered by their abusive partners with guns all deserve it????? This is a yes or no question. Please respond.

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    11. I have plainly and simply stated my position. Yes or No is 'stay' or 'leave'. I'll gladly let you answer for me. If you, Mikeb, were in a situation where you know you could be murdered by a known violent person with a gun, would you stay around to see what happens? Or, would you skeedaddle as fast as you could?
      Yes or No, Stay or Leave?

      orlin sellers

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    12. You know damn well it's not that simple. Many cases are not as easily classified as your simpleton's world view would have us believe. In this matter you're blaming the victims of murderous gun violence for their own deaths instead of the gun owner male partners. Some of them didn't have enough evidence of instability before the murder took place. That's because some of you gun nuts are quite adept at concealing your true nature. Others just didn't have the strength or resources to do what they knew they should have. NONE OF THEM fall into your description of having deserved what they got.

      Delete
    13. And as I said in my original post, "Let the excuses begin."
      I'm not the one who posted "Fifty Women a Month Die by Guns in Domestic Violence Incidents". Now, you are suggesting that these women didn't know they were being abused until they entered the Pearly Gates. Nonsense.

      orlin sellers

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    14. Mikeb, you just admitted that "gun nuts" are able to conceal their "instability," but you insist that testing and background checks will magically catch them. Which is it?

      Delete
  3. Because a background check is going to find someone who hasn't been convicted already? Because a lowlife won't be able to find someone who will sell him a gun? The answer is for tougher penalties earlier on for those who commit crimes of violence of any type, including domestic violence.

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    1. Or we simply take them away, and use professional tools for professional purposes.

      Whatever form of mundane labour you partake in to earn a living, you must utilize some form of tool to achieve. Carpenters use saws, painters brushes, machinists lathes, and soldiers use guns.

      Why should we allow you to own and use that which you have no business with? What purpose to society does that serve? How does that contribute to the war effort?

      Delete
    2. BANtheNRA.

      You're not an American citizen.

      Delete
    3. More than likely, this is yet another copy of Jadegold.

      Delete
    4. Flying Junior:

      That's quite a statement for a suspected communist noted on SEVERAL watch lists. The only reason that you still cling to your citizenship, is so we can't load your guntard communist ass and fly you straight to gitmo where you belong.

      Greg Camp (another known or suspected Communist):

      Jokes on you. I'm a proud registered Republican.

      Delete
  4. "But even that paltry prohibition doesn’t cover dating partners — federal law only protects women victimized by spouses or co-parents. "

    Minnesota seems to include dating partners:
    "In determining whether persons are or have been involved in a significant romantic or sexual relationship under clause (7), the court shall consider the length of time of the relationship; type of relationship; frequency of interaction between the parties; and, if the relationship has terminated, length of time since the termination."
    https://www.revisor.mn.gov/statutes/?id=518B.01#stat.518B.01.2

    So, in essence, the judge tell you is it counts or not because it seems like a good sized grey area to me.

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    Replies
    1. Generally, not nearly enough is being done to disarm the domestic abusers

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