opinion

Let's separate the abusers from their guns

I work with women who have experienced the worst. They have been abused, torn down and put in harm's way, time and time again.

As a domestic violence prevention advocate, I have witnessed firsthand the devastating and even deadly effects that domestic abuse has on countless women, children and families throughout Arizona. Through my work, I've learned the startling truth that domestic violence is all-too-often linked to gun violence.

New research released by my organization, the Arizona Coalition to End Sexual and Domestic Violence, and Everytown for Gun Safety, the country's largest gun violence prevention organization, reveals a more alarming picture of Arizona's record of domestic violence gun homicides than we previously knew to be true.

Sixty-two percent of women killed by their intimate partners in Arizona were shot to death, and our state's rate of domestic gun violence is a staggering 45 percent higher than the national average.

These findings demonstrate how important it is for our community to come together to find a solution to domestic violence gun homicides.

Domestic violence shootings affect every community in our state.

A woman named Ashley Hicks was shot and killed by her ex-boyfriend outside her Tucson apartment building on Dec. 20, 2012. Before her murder, Ashley asked our court system for help. Four months earlier, she took out a protective order against her abuser. The court had the power to require him to turn in his guns, but it chose not to.

Ashley's story is just one of an untold number of deaths that might have been prevented had the victims' abusers not had access to guns.

Her shooting was one of 105 domestic violence gun homicides identified between 2009 and 2013 in Arizona. In those 105 incidents, shooters killed more than just their intimate partners; they also shot and killed 25 others, including 11 children.

Counting instances where the abuser committed suicide at the end of a homicide, 191 people died in domestic violence gun homicides. And these shootings happened everywhere from Phoenix to Flagstaff to Fort Defiance.

These incidents are even more tragic when you consider there were often indications the shooters posed a risk to their partners.

One in seven of the shooters was federally prohibited from buying and possessing firearms and should have never been able to get their hands on the guns that ultimately killed innocent people. However, many likely had guns due to loopholes in state and federal law that makes it easy for dangerous people to get firearms.

Federal law prohibits abusers who are subject to active protection orders from having guns, but Arizona does not have its own laws to enforce this prohibition, such as a law requiring all these abusers to turn in the guns they already own once they become prohibited. As a result, it's all too easy for abusers to maintain access to guns they illegally possess, which can lead to a deadly result for their victims.

On top of that, state law does not require background checks on all gun sales, which enables domestic abusers and other dangerous people to buy guns from unlicensed, private sellers even if they're federally prohibited from possessing firearms.

It's imperative our Legislature finally address Arizona's alarming record of fatal intimate partner gun violence by enacting common-sense legislation that will help keep guns out of the hands of domestic abusers. The lives of women, children and families across Arizona depend on it.

Allie Bones is CEO of the Arizona Coalition to End Sexual and Domestic Violence.