“MASS SHOOTINGS” & “DOMESTIC VIOLENCE” ARE MORE THAN CLOSE COUSINS

…David Conley, the alleged killer of his ex-girlfriend & her 6 children.

 

To change the laws on domestic violence, we need more women in the state legislatures.

I don’t usually write about issues of violence.  But as bad as the nation’s mass shootings have gotten in recent months, I had decided to do some research on the problem.  Here is what I learned.
 

I was a bit surprised when I finally got the available statistics on what is referred to today as, “mass shootings”.

First, the term “mass shooting” is generally understood to be a shooting of two or more people.  Under this definition, it has shown that “domestic killings” make up the majority of “mass shootings”.

Now, when looking at the recent random killing of the police officer in Texas that was gassing up his squad car and a man walked up and shot him 17 times.  This kind of a single random killing is very rare.  The story behind real “mass shootings” is that 57% of these shootings between 2009 and 2015 involved a family member or intimate partner.   Of the victims, the statistics show that 81% were women and children.  

When this David Conley broke into his ex-girlfriend Valerie Jackson’s home in Houston, Texas, early in August and allegedly shot her and her six children to death, that was then referred to as an act of "domestic violence".  By calling it that however, it received considerably less media attention.  But by definition, it was a “mass shooting” and should have been called as such by the investigators.

Due to shooting coverages by broadcast and cable TV,  Americans have come to consider a mass shooter as a gun-toting suspect, always male, who enters a public space and kills many people, most of them strangers.

In reality, most “mass shootings” occur in private homes or locations where the victim knows their murderer and they are usually aware of their killer’s violent propensities. And as previously stated, these killings are rarely random.

An organization known as Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, its founder, Shannon Watts, says there is a good reason that Americans aren’t drawing a connection between domestic violence and mass shootings.  That being because most of the state’s legislatures and our Congress are failing to see the link.  The reason for this failure is that these groups are usually made up of men who tend to blame the victims.  Many of the "men" in these legislatures have been found to be victim-blamers by saying that women should avoid becoming involved with violent men.

Per Ms. Watts: “They’re not making the policies that protect our communities and our families and our sisters and mothers and daughters.  And these policies are being made mainly by men who aren’t being personally impacted by domestic violence.”
 

Watts says the lack of women being involved in making policy decisions gives gun advocates free rein to lobby for laws that support gun ownership.  And that’s even for those people to own guns who clearly shouldn’t be in possession of a firearm. Unfortunately, for making good policies about guns, women make up less than 25% of all state legislatures, despite being over 50% of the nation's population. 

Current federal law bars domestic abusers who have been convicted of misdemeanor domestic violence from owning guns.  But the law generally only protects spouses, or intimate partners who live together.  That law does not include dating partners.  Even though 69% of intimate partner homicides were committed by a spouse in 1980, the number of murders committed by a dating partner rose to nearly 50% by 2008. 

According to the Center for American Progress, only 10 states have a gun ban against misdemeanor domestic violence abusers who have attacked the women they’ve dated.  Therein lies the problem "loophole".
 

But there’s another problem with this issue.

The federal ban on domestic abusers is limited because its definition of an abuser excludes acts such as stalking, harassment and other forms of intimidation.

Most abusers have stalked their victims before harming them. But even if someone is convicted of stalking, he or she can still legally purchase a gun. The National Center for Victims of Crimes reports that 7.5 million people were stalked in 2011 and 61% of those people were women.

To demonstrate the problem, the previously mentioned David Conley allegedly threatened his ex-girlfriend, Valerie Jackson, with violence "at least three times prior to his August killings". The reality is that domestic abusers "are eight times more likely to kill their victims if they have access to a gun".

If all of this is news to you, the close correlation between "mass shootings" and "domestic violence" is anything but new.

In 2013, the news organization, AlterNet News reported that 57% of mass shootings dating back to 2009 "involved a shooter who killed a spouse or family member and eight of those shooters had a prior domestic violence charge".

Ms. Watts says these figures should serve as a wakeup call to the nation that our loose gun laws are enabling abusers to kill innocent women and children.  But main-stream news tends to avoid getting that word out there. 

Per Ms. Watts:  “It is so important for women to realize that we are being victimized by mass shootings.  We need to use our voices and our votes to change the laws and close the loopholes that allow online [gun] sales to dangerous people. We need to use our voices and votes to redefine what a domestic abuser is and to make sure we are keeping guns out of the hands of dangerous people.”

All good points and good information.

Too bad it will probably never get past the lobbying efforts of the National Rifle Association (NRA).

Copyright G.Ater 2015