You Wouldn't Believe How Easily a Domestic Abuser Can Get a Gun

http://www.alternet.org/activism/you-wouldnt-believe-how-easily-domestic-abuser-can-get-gun



In his killing rampage, Rodger Elliot targeted women. He isn't the only man in America to do so. National crime statistics suggest that on any given day, three women die at the hands of their intimate partners.

The Isla Vista killings have re-ignited federal and state efforts to make sure that those who threaten those closest to them don't have access to a gun. A wealth of grim statistics speak volumes about why this is needed.

Of those murdered by their partners, guns are involved 50 percent of the time. Each month, 46 women are estimated be murdered by a gun by an intimate partner. Compared to households without a gun, those with a firearm see an eight-fold increase in the risk of intimate partner homicide. If there is a history of domestic violence in that relationship, this risk is 20 times higher compared to homes without guns, according to the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Policy and Research. A 2004 study based on interviews with women in domestic violence shelters found that over two-thirds had said that they had been threatened by their partner with a gun.

A generation ago, in the 1990s, Congress recognized the dark relationship between the presence of guns and domestic violence deaths. It passed a series of legislative reforms, through the Violence Against Women Act and amending the Gun Control Act, to try to keep guns out of the hands of abusive partners. In response to Elliott Rodger’s killing spree in Isla Vista, California, there is a now a new push to re-invigorate state and national efforts to update those laws and close known loopholes that can harm women.