Disarm All Domestic Abusers Now

[applegrove]

Katie McDonough at Fusion

http://fusion.kinja.com/disarm-all-domestic-abusers-now-1796101206?utm_campaign=socialflow_fusion_facebook&utm_source=fusion_facebook&utm_medium=socialflow

"SNIP...........


Soon after this information was made public, journalists began the familiar task of puzzling out who he was and how he could do what he did. We learned that Hodgkinson was 66 years old. He was from Illinois and volunteered for Bernie Sanders’s presidential campaign. He used Facebook to rage about taxes and Republicans, and was apparently the kind of person who shared memes about treason.

As I read each report, I searched them for two words: domestic violence. I do this because of a sentence I can recite for you from memory: Most mass shootings in this country are related to some kind of domestic or family violence. It is almost always there, somewhere in the shooter’s history. And it was again this time, as confirmed by the Daily Beast:


Hodgkinson also had a history of violence. In 2006, he was arrested for domestic battery and discharge of a firearm after he punched a man’s girlfriend “in the face with a closed fist,” according to a sheriff’s office report reviewed by The Daily Beast. When the man walked outside of the residence, Hodgkinson aimed a shotgun at him and later fired one round.

Hodgkinson was also “observed throwing” an unidentified minor “around the bedroom,” the report said. Police identified the girl as his daughter. After the girl broke free, Hodgkinson followed and “started hitting her arms, pulling her hair, and started grabbing her off the bed.”

When Hodgkinson’s girlfriend tried to leave in a vehicle, he reached inside and “turned off the ignition,” the report said. “James then pulled out a possible pocket knife and cut [her] seatbelt.”

The charges were dismissed, according to court records.

............SNIP"

[hack89]

1. Lets start convicting them first

violent people need to be in jail.

[Thinkingabout]

2. He surely displayed actions which is too often over looked, domestic violence by either sex is never

acceptable, when one violates members of their own family I doubt they can control their actions against others outside of their family.

[marylandblue]

3. Domestic abusers often get away with it

Either because families are afraid to testify or prosecutors won't prosecute.

[NickB79]

4. Federal law already prohibits domestic abusers from buying guns

The problem here is convicting them in the first place.

[stuffmatters]

6. this

[stuffmatters]

5. It's what they all have in common. Domestic violence strongest predictor for mass shooters

Instead Repugs will blame Bernie, late night comedians, "vulgar" democrats, town hall protests, kathy griffin etc. Anything to avoid passing gun laws prohibiting sales of even assault rifles to the most predictably dangerous.

[murielm99]

7. In Illinois,

domestic abusers are not allowed to have guns. People with orders of protection against them for domestic violence have to give up their guns. This guy may have obtained his guns illegally. Or, since the charges were dropped he had nothing to worry about?

We have a shotgun that my husband was given by a former coworker. The man had an order of protection against him, so he gave the gun to us. Later, he moved out of state. He never came back for the gun, and has since died.

[politicat]

10. Does IL check the database, confiscate AND destroy?

If they don't, all they're doing is preventing future purchases through stores. They're not eliminating private sales, across state line sales, or straw purchases. And if the state isn't confiscating at issuance of the order or at arrest, they're leaving the weapons in known violent hands for weeks or months. Most DV incidents do not result in conviction or permanent restraining orders, because most DAs and prosecutors do not take DV seriously.

You and your spouse were responsible, and would not have returned that gun to the former owner, because you knew it was illegal for him to have it. That level of basic civic responsibility cannot be assured.

If the state isn't requiring the ones in possession to be turned over, then the abuser is stuck with what's in their inventory. Oh, no. They might have to make do with three rifles, two shotguns and a brace of handguns. How will they possibly cope? If the state isn't destroying what they confiscate, they're selling them back into the population, so there's no net loss.

[murielm99]

11. I have no idea

about the answers to any of your questions. This was the only time we even came close to any issue like this.

Don't blame me for things I know nothing about.

[politicat]

8. YES.

Look, I know I'm going to get heat for this. But people who go on to kill others always, always, always start by abusing people they perceive as smaller, weaker, more defenseless. They always start close to home. They can't help it.

This is an entitlement problem. A person who feels entitled to kill another person also feels entitled to beat the shit out of a domestic partner, or to abuse a child. That's our warning, and we ignore it almost every time. These people tell us they're not fit for civilization. They use their fists to scream out that they are broken and we do nothing.

Most of the time, when there's no conviction, or when charges are dropped, it's because the victim of the abuse just wants the abuse to stop. Going forward with a trial means the abuse keeps happening for months, or years. These guys -- they're almost always guys -- don't start with hitting or threatening. They stalk. They get their victims fired from jobs. They gossip and ruin reputations. They ruin credit. They make scenes at their victim's new residence, and that scene means the VICTIM could lose their housing for reporting the abuser. Often the victims run as far as they can, which means the prosecutor no longer has the primary witness. By the time the police get called, the abuse is old and the victim is exhausted.

We make it easy for people who think they're entitled to mete out their version of vigilante justice. We lionize vigilantes, through Westerns literature and visual media, through Batman and Daredevil. We give them models that build their fantasies of superiority and grandeur. In most states, we only restrict someone convicted of an assault from buying guns in the future -- most states do not confiscate and destroy the ones already in their possession. Even in the few places where confiscation happens, nobody spot-checks in the future. We still have the private sale loophole. We still have the "oops, I guess it got lost" loophole. We still have the straw purchasers loopholes.

I get it. These asshats will still try to do whatever they can to fulfill their fantasies of power and relevance. If they can't get guns, they're going to use crowbars and knives and machetes and swords and sledge hammers. They're going to cook up peroxide bombs, or hoard fireworks to fill a pressure cooker. I know that controlling access to weapons for domestic abusers won't stop this.

What it does is slow them down. If they want to bomb, they're more likely to blow themselves up first. A bludgeon or a blade requires getting up close which means other people can get away. But mostly, getting the gun out of the domestic violence cycle means we turn a potential murderer into a nasty, bitter, ranting asshole sitting alone in a room, being a jackass online and an embarrassment to those around them. Because remember, this is an entitlement problem. Those who kill feel entitled to it. They want everything easy. They want to be catered to, handed their money for nothing and their chicks for free. They aren't motivated. Knife or sword or bomb attacks take skill and practice and these entitled douches don't want to work for anything -- not a relationship, not a job, not a skill or even their own peace of mind. Guns make it easy, and these asshats are all about easy for themselves.

We grieve for the two men killed and one injured in Portland, and we were thankful their murderer didn't have 30 rounds in a handgun in a crowded train car. Who also had domestics in his history. Thank fate he had a prior conviction and had alienated those around him enough that nobody bought a gun they somehow lost.

[smirkymonkey]

9. +1000

[hunter]

12. No heat from me.

Guns should be hard to get and difficult to keep.

[athena]

13. This is hands down one of the best posts I've ever read on DU.

I wish it were its own thread so I could bookmark and recommend it.

[politicat]

15. Link in text

https://www.democraticunderground.com/10029205264#post8

It's at the bottom of any post, at the Link Here tag, between Alert Abuse and Permalink. (Permalink does the same thing, but the Link Here gets the whole thread.)

[zz-la]

14. There is a House Bill from two years ago that would close loopholes

that allow some domestic abusers to still cary guns. Those do need to be closed. Good article.