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

[Squinch]

1. Kick.

[BlancheSplanchnik]

2. Almost 2 women shot every day by a current or former partner. Men are killing Women.

And most ppl say, "Tsk tsk. What a shame *shrug*". If that much.

No one says there's a problem with Men. Even though it's abundantly clear that there is.

[niyad]

5. but. . . . women kill men, too (figured I would get that out early)

[BlancheSplanchnik]

6. ...

pre-emotive troll trilling


Oh ha ha! That was supposed to be pre-emptive troll trolling. But the autocorrect was too funny to delete!

[raccoon]

3. Off to Greatest with you! nt

[BlancheSplanchnik]

7. Silly raccoon...only articles about issues of national concern,

Or about ethnophobia, racism, homophobia or theophobia, or about animal abuse, go to the Greatest page.

You'll note femicide is not on that list.



☠️very depressed sarcasm☠️

[niyad]

4. . . . .

[NickB79]

8. As a society, we treat beating your wife as a joke

In some cases, it is literally joked about. When women seek help from friends and family, you'll get all sorts of rationalizations and victim-blaming that send the victim right back to him. And more often than not, when police are involved, they fail to act as well. When my mom finally called the police on my dad, the cops threatened to arrest HER!

[raccoon]

9. "Domestic violence" murders of the week: Father kills two daughters

and then himself.

Dad Kidnaps and Kills Daughters, 8 and 11, Before Setting Car on Fire and Turning Gun on Himself
Inside Edition,Inside Edition 9 hours ago

A suicidal father kidnapped and killed his two daughters before turning the gun on himself.

Jamie Cortinas, 42, shot Janet Cortinas-Duran, 8, and Jasmine Duran-Cortinas, 11, and then set his Land Rover on fire and shot himself during a shootout with police in Oregon on Wednesday.

Cortinas had reportedly taken the girls, who both attended Glenfair Elementary School, from their mom, who called 911 on Wednesday afternoon. She told police that her husband was armed, dangerous and suicidal, and had disappeared with their daughters early that morning, according to police.

An officer spotted Cortinas’ Land Rover at a gas station and approached him. Cortinas then reportedly opened fire on the officer and set his own truck on fire. Officers on the scene tried to rescue the children but they were already dead, according to reports.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/dad-kidnaps-kills-daughters-8-135700412.html

[niyad]

11. how horrible. thank you for posting this. we need to know

[raccoon]

10. Clearly, not many Duers are concerned about this. nt

[niyad]

12. you noticed that. sad, is it not?

[hack89]

13. The justice system needs to do a much better job of identify violent people

and putting them away for extended periods. People don't start with murder - they usually have a long record of violence before they kill. We need to stop that chain. Violence of any kind should be a massive red flag that elicits attention and punishment if required.

As for guns, we need stronger tools to disarm (either permanently or temporarily) people potentially dangerous to themselves and others. As long as there is due process it should be constitutional.

[niyad]

14. you are correct, but, as long as women and children are seen as expendable, that is not going to

happen.