Domestic violence and guns: the hidden American crisis ending women's lives (re:San Bernadino)

[niyad]

Domestic violence and guns: the hidden American crisis ending women's lives

The shooting death of a teacher in San Bernardino, California, by her estranged husband was hardly an outlier – an estimated 50 women a month are shot to death in the US by former or current partners



All countries have domestic violence. The difference is that we arm our abusers
Shannon Watts, founder, Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America





Attendees at a candlelight vigil at Our Lady of the Assumption church in San Bernardino, California, on Monday to mourn the victims of a deadly shooting at a local elementary school. Photograph: Zoe Meyers/ddpUSA/Barcroft



In one mass shooting after another, some gun control advocates and journalists see a common thread: when domestic violence is not the immediate cause of a mass shooting, it was there as a warning sign in the history of the perpetrator. On Monday, a husband murdered his wife, an elementary school teacher, and an eight-year-old child, opening fire on them in a classroom in San Bernardino, California, before turning the gun on himself, officials said. A nine-year-old student was also injured in the attack. A shooting with three deaths does not meet most definitions of a mass shooting, though how such a shooting should be defined – and the precise numerical definition of the loss of life required – is sharply contested.

The multiple-victim shooting in an elementary school drew a strong response from local law enforcement, and nationwide media coverage. But the kind of violence that claimed the life of eight-year-old Jonathan Martinez and Elaine Smith, a 53-year-old teacher in a special needs classroom, is a daily occurrence. Advocates say that nearly 50 American women are shot to death by former or current partners each month – more than one a day, according to national police department statistics. “Domestic gun violence is a crisis in this country,” said Shannon Watts, the founder of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, a gun control group founded after the 2012 school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut. In all, an average of at least 760 Americans are shot to death by current or former partners each year, a 2016 Associated Press analysis of national and state law enforcement data found. These numbers are probably an undercount, since not all agencies provide data. Nearly 75% of the victims in domestic violence shootings are the current wives or girlfriends of the men who killed them, the Associated Press found. Shooting deaths of men are much less frequent.

Law enforcement officials said Smith’s estranged husband, 53-year-old Cedric Anderson, said nothing as he opened fire on her in a classroom of first- through fourth-grade special needs students. Two students who were standing behind her were also shot, officials said. With two victims killed and one injured, the North Park elementary school shooting does not meet the definition of a mass shooting according to the Gun Violence Archive, a not-for-profit group that produces a continuously updated public tally of shootings. There are multiple, contested definitions of what should be counted as a mass shooting. The Gun Violence Archive classifies them as shootings with at least four victims injured or killed, not including the perpetrator.

By at least two different tallies, though, domestic violence accounts for a substantial number of mass shooting incidents and mass shooting victims. One updated analysis by Everytown for Gun Safety, a gun control group, found that 54% of mass shooting incidents involved the killing of a current or former partner or family member. That analysis looked at multiple-casualty shootings over several years that left four or more people dead. A Huffington Post analysis of the Everytown data found that 64% of the victims in these mass shootings were women and children, even though women usually represent 15% of all gun homicide victims and children 7%.

. . . . .

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/apr/11/domestic-violence-shooting-deaths-women-husbands-boyfriends

[NCTraveler]

1. 50/month.

We need to send Ivanka the crime scene photos.

[niyad]

2. excellent point!!

[malaise]

8. Yes

+1,000

[Squinch]

3. Kick.

[mopinko]

4. domestic violence is the root of ALL violence, imho.

i had a friend a long time ago who, after surviving a bitter divorce, seemed to be getting it together w a new lady.

as the relationship chilled, he fell over the edge. he put on his duck hunting outfit, took his riffle and waited in the weeds for several hours till she got home at 2am.
he shot her, then shot himself.

i have often wondered how far the ripples of that went. he had 2 grown sons. this had to have been a huge psychic injury to them.
his friends were wracked w guilt that they all saw him failing, but didnt know what to do about it.

add to that the undetected traumatic brain injuries to children in abusive homes, and yes indeed, we have a preventable epidemic of grizzly violence.

[niyad]

5. a vicious, seemingly unending cycle of horror and death and destruction.

[mopinko]

6. yup.

if i had time for every crusade that comes to my mind, one would be to add a question to the school health certificate about head trauma. concussions, seizures, etc.
i discussed this w some electeds who agreed it was a great idea, and not at all a heavy lift.

even tho we dont really have good treatment for that, putting a finger on those kids early on could at least lead to some behavioral and therapeutic treatments so they arent alone in dealing w the warping of their personalities.
instead they end up getting caught up in a punitive cycle that only makes it worse.

and btw, the aca would have had a major impact on the ability to treat these kids.

[niyad]

7. such a simple thing--no way the assholes in charge will go for this.

[mopinko]

9. ikr? cuz then they would have it on their heads.

[niyad]

10. and we cannot have them accountable for anything.