Stephen Paddock shared a trait with other mass killers: He abused women (Quartz)
Written by
Max de Haldevang
As police search for a motive for Stephen Paddock’s massacre of dozens of people in Las Vegas this week, one detail shouldn’t come as a surprise—Paddock had a habit of berating his girlfriend in public.
While the motives behind mass shootings in modern American history vary, one thread connects them all: The perpetrators were overwhelmingly male and had a history of domestic abuse or misogynistic shows of behavior.
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Americans convicted of domestic violence are already banned from buying guns. But that didn’t stop the killers above. The US government needs to do much more, says Nancy Leong, law professor at the University of Denver: Before and during parole, she argues, known domestic-violence offenders should have their houses swept for any trace of firearms. There are precedents for this kind of monitoring: “A drug test looking at the interior of someone’s body is arguably more invasive than [searching] their house,” Leong says.
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The National Rifle Association might not like it, Leong acknowledges, but strict vetting is consistent with the exercise of other constitutionally-protected rights. “You need a permit to have a parade or a rally and exercise your first amendment rights,” she says. “This isn’t that hard.”
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more: https://qz.com/1094160/las-vegas-shooter-stephen-paddock-abused-women-just-like-other-mass-killers-in-the-us/?utm_source=readnext
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