A bill was recently introduced in the U.S. House to reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act. But already the gun lobby has made it clear whose side it’s on—and it’s not the side of women.

Congress let VAWA lapse earlier this year, but in early March, California congresswoman Karen Bass introduced The Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act of 2019. This new bill effectively closes the loopholes that allow dating partners convicted of domestic violence and convicted stalkers to buy guns. It would also require state law enforcement officials to be notified every time a person who is not allowed to have guns tries to buy a firearm and fails the background check. In short, the new VAWA has the potential to significantly reduce gun violence against women.

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Members have a decision to make: will they protect survivors of stalking & domestic abuse? Or are they willing to allow their convicted stalkers & abusers to have access to firearms? #VAWA https://t.co/ZdEn7z86IB — Nancy Pelosi (@SpeakerPelosi) March 27, 2019

Even though VAWA has been reauthorized three times with bipartisan support since 1994, the new VAWA reauthorization is in jeopardy. Why? Because the National Rifle Association—a lobbying organization whose main purpose is to sell more guns on behalf of gun manufacturers —is inserting itself in a federal fight about violence against women to protect cowardly lawmakers, and to make sure abusers continue to have easy access to guns.

The NRA says it opposes VAWA because guns could be removed “over misdemeanor domestic violence or stalking convictions.” It says it spends “millions of dollars teaching countless Americans how not to be a victim and how to safely use firearms for self-defense.”

But here’s the truth: The NRA would rather protect domestic abusers to sell more guns than protect abused women.

On average, 52 American women are shot to death by a current or former intimate partner each month.

In fact, the NRA has said women sometimes lie about abuse, which is partly why they try to block state laws that broaden the definition of a domestic abuser to include dating partners and stalkers. And it works to ensure stalkers stay armed.



Simultaneously, the NRA tries to sell guns to women to protect themselves against shadowy home intruders, when the most likely danger is from a current or former intimate partner, including husbands and boyfriends. When a gun is present in a domestic violence situation, it’s five times more likely that the woman will be killed.

And unlike women in other high-income countries, American women are 21 times more likely to be shot and killed. On average, 52 American women are shot to death by a current or former intimate partner each month.

Women like Tyesha McNair, who was shot and killed by the father of her children in 2009 after she got a protective order against him and was preparing to flee his abuse. Women like Zina Daniel, whose estranged husband exploited a loophole to buy a gun online after she filed a restraining order against him and killed her and two others with it in 2012. Women like Jitka Vesel, whose stalker was able to illegally buy a gun in 2011 and shoot her in a parking lot, killing her.

We also know that what begins as domestic violence often has broader consequences. In at least 54 percent of mass shootings from 2009 to 2017, the perpetrator also shot a current or former intimate partner or family member—many of them children.

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FACT: When a gun is present in a domestic violence situation, it’s five times more likely the woman will be killed by her abusive partner.



Add your name to tell Congress to reauthorize #VAWA & reject amendments that could add guns to volatile situations: https://t.co/YUelL5hTda pic.twitter.com/uS1OG70efh — Moms Demand Action (@MomsDemand) March 31, 2019

State laws have already proven that keeping guns out of the hands of abusers protects women. States that restrict access to guns by abusers subject to domestic violence restraining orders have seen a 13 percent reduction in intimate partner firearm homicide rates. And since 1998, the FBI reported it has denied more than 200,000 sales to domestic abusers.

But this data doesn’t matter to the NRA. Its goal is to make sure as many people as possible buy guns, including dangerous abusers, no matter the cost—even if it costs us the lives of our mothers, sisters and daughters.

We didn’t elect NRA lobbyists to write our nation’s gun laws or to protect marginalized and vulnerable communities. We elect Congress to do that. The House of Representatives is about to vote on the new VAWA bill, and they must do so without caving to the gun lobby's fear mongering or its craven motives to arm everyone, everywhere, no questions asked.

With lives hanging in the balance, it’s time for women to tell our lawmakers whose side we’re on: Our own.

Shannon Watts is the founder of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America and a mom of five. She lives in Colorado.

Shannon Watts Shannon Watts is the founder of Moms Demand Action and the author of Fight Like a Mother: How a Grassroots Movement Took on the Gun Lobby and Why Women Will Change the World.

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