Story highlights Leslie Morgan Steiner: Strong link exists between domestic abuse and future acts of violence or mass killing

Rather than rush to judgment against Orlando shooter's widow, we should explore that connection, she says

Leslie Morgan Steiner is the author of the New York Times bestselling memoir, Crazy Love. Her TED Talk on why victims stay in abusive situations has been viewed by over three million people. She lives in Washington, DC. The opinions expressed in this commentary are hers.

(CNN) My first husband kept three guns -- a Glock, a Colt 45, and a snub-nosed .38 -- in our car's glove compartment, under the pillow of the bed we shared, and in his pants' pocket, respectively. He made me join the NRA and pressured me to go to his company's gun range for "target practice" almost weekly.

I thought of his guns -- and that being married to an abusive man did not make me an accessory to his violence -- this week, when I read the news that federal prosecutors are planning to present grand jury evidence against Noor Salman, the widow of Orlando nightclub shooter Omar Mateen.

Leslie Morgan Steiner

We do not have enough information yet to know whether she played any role in the tragic violence of June 12, but we know that Omar Mateen has been accused of domestic violence in the past . On a personal and judicial level, this rush to scapegoat a potential domestic violence victim disturbs me greatly, and it reveals our society's shallow understanding of the complex dynamics of abuse.

Law enforcement and homeland security experts need to recognize what seems to be an increasingly clear pattern: People who abuse their loved ones have an increased risk of committing other crimes, including domestic terrorism and mass shootings.

Don't get me wrong: all mass shootings are abhorrent and reprehensible. And while we yet don't know how much Salman knew in advance of Mateen's attack on the nightclub, anyone involved in mass shootings should be prosecuted.