October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month. Intimate partner abuse is an important consideration in our national conversation about the role of guns in our culture.

Everytown for Gun Safety reports that in an average month, 52 women are shot to death by intimate partners, and that the presence of a gun in a household makes it five times more likely for domestic violence to turn deadly.

Research out of Boston University finds a substantial association between the rate of gun ownership per state and the number of women shot to death by guns. We’re fortunate that we have appropriately strict gun laws in Massachusetts, but in many ways, we’re only as safe as our neighbor states keep us, and we’re surrounded by states with extremely lax gun purchase laws.

It’s long past time for the Senate to take up the Bipartisan Background Checks Act so that we as a nation can take concrete steps to reduce gun violence, in all its awful forms, in all of our communities.

Stephanie Strand

South Hadley