Tag: Congress

Ladies, this is killing us: Domestic Violence and Guns

Posted on by lauraanneayres

Sources are at the end of this post.

A woman is shot by a current or ex intimate partner once every 16 hours.

We have congressional leaders unwilling to implement gun safety measures that the vast majority of Americans want. The anniversary of the Massacre at Sandy Hook found the head of the NRA celebrating the holidays at the White House. The NRA is actively working (and succeeding) to stop meaningful legislation aimed at domestic/intimate abusers’ access to guns.

Reports indicate 4.5 million of our fellow sisters have been threatened by an intimate partner with a gun and 1 million have been shot. These are the NONFATAL statistics and these are only the reported incidents.

Ladies, we must do something to protect our sisters. Unlike the NRA, I do not believe the answer is arming ourselves; unless we are arming ourselves with protective legislation and local/state/federal regulation. Violence begets violence. We must examine the example we set for our children.

Most of my well-educated circle of friends and colleagues believe we have mandatory universal background checks in place – we do not. Licensed dealers are required to perform a background check; however, the exchange of guns through transfers, online sales, etc. comprises roughly 40% of ALL gun purchases. These are done without a background check.

Every time there is a mass shooting involving children, we collectively cry and mourn. When the dust settles, it’s always the same – history of domestic aggression/violence/abuse and collection of firearms.

When will that crying be replaced with collective anger and action?

Here’s what I’d like to suggest: if every woman in the US joined the NRA, we would control it. We could implement meaningful change to protect our sisters, trapped in domestic and judicial situations they cannot control. We can’t stop mass shootings, but we could take a step toward curtailing them.

What else can we do? The #MeToo movement is strong and powerful, as was the Womens’ March. We have strength in numbers. Why don’t we save ourselves?

Support anything Chris Murphy does, same with Gabby Giffords. Support your local shelters, CASA, any organization trying to implement meaningful change. Share this post, write your own post (with sources for statistics and information), do SOMETHING.

Vote. Stop this epidemic.

Every sister is my sister.

I don’t want to hear stories about an abusive husband murdering of his wife and children over a looming divorce he does not want, or a boyfriend with a record breaking a restraining order and killing a roomful of employees at his girlfriend’s office, or another mass shooting by a white male with a clear history of domestic violence and an arsenal of firearms. Enough! Aren’t we all sick. Aren’t we all tired. It is enough.

One of these stories could, and odds are will, be about a friend of mine. A family member. Me. It’s enough.

images.duckduckgo.com

Sources:

https://www.thetrace.org/2016/02/woman-shot-killed-frequency-domestic-violence/

http://www.nola.com/politics/index.ssf/2015/05/heres_what_the_nra_got_strippe.html

http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1524838016668589?journalCode=tvaa&

Thousands of Guns, No Background Check Required

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/nra-guns-domestic-violence_us_5967dd57e4b01741862645f2

http://fortune.com/2017/11/07/domestic-violence-shootings-statistics/

Domestic Violence & The Lautenberg Amendment

Did President Donald Trump Host the NRA on the Anniversary of the Sandy Hook Massacre?

Graphic: theodysseyonline.com

The GOP just lost my respect

Posted on by lauraanneayres

I mean that sincerely. Until recently, I was open to voting for a GOP candidate. I consider(ed) patriotism and patriotic intent one of the crowning jewels of the Grand Old Party and patriotism is something upon which I place a high value. I voted, primarily, as a liberal (thinker), which allowed me the luxury of choosing candidates based on personal ideology and not party affiliation. Patriotism has always influenced my voting pattern.

Which is why I will no longer consider a GOP candidate at any level. Too bad, because I was one of those “good gets” for a GOP candidate – socially liberal, fiscally conservative.

But, the Republican partisan politics have reached a new low. We now have sitting members in Congress, elected by their constituents to focus on the best interests of the American people, writing to the leader of a foreign nation in open and direct defiance of the President of the United States. Just weeks before, these same “team players, we are all Americans” invited a foreign leader to take the Congressional podium, again in direct defiance of the expressed orders of the President.

This is more than (notice I said “more than” clearly implying that these acts could be constituted as…) insubordination, dereliction of duty, abuse of power, or treason. This is highly problematic for the United States on two levels.

First, this is a profound display of weakness to foreign nations. By essentially overriding the will of the executive branch publicly, the legislative branch makes our Commander-in-Chief appear compromised and unable to demand the support of his own countrymen, all of whom, by the way, swore an oath of allegiance.

Second, more reaching in its harmful scope in my opinion, this public dissension and breach of protocol by the GOP represents a fundamental break in the governmental structure of checks and balances (separation of powers). Each branch fundamentally has its own responsibilities in regard to this country’s well being. When one branch (read here: Legislative) works in direct, public, global defiance of another branch (read here: Executive), Americans suffer. Partisan politics and manipulations born by a few dozen men and women creep in like a silent killer and slowly eat at the fabric of our republic.

Guess who should know all of this better than a 6th generation, opera-singing, blond Texan? The self-described “patriots,” defending our Constitution, Lady Liberty, and God-blessed United States.

All of you lost my vote and my respect. For those GOP leaders who stayed silent, I can only say what Jed Bartlett would probably say in this moment, “Qui tacet consentire videtur.”