GVPanorama: A Gun Law the NRA Opposes Could Have Saved Its Employee’s Life
The National Rifle Association once supported red flag gun laws
While on the search for recent gun violence prevention news for our weekly "Friday Finds” feature, we often come across editorials, personal stories, or wider-lens articles that don’t necessarily fit into a “current events” window. With GVPanorama we highlight some of these thought-provoking pieces.
Today’s story from The Trace involves the harrowing story of a female NRA employee who sought an Extreme Risk Protection Order (ERPO) against her abusive husband. As the article explains, “Such a statute expressly provides a person in Dawn’s position the opportunity to go before a judge and make a case under oath that her husband should be immediately disarmed because access to firearms puts her life in imminent danger.”
The only problem was, her home state didn’t have such a law on the books. And while her employee once supported such “red flag laws” as recently as 2018, the NRA is now stuck in its stubborn, dangerous regimen of opposing any such laws.
“In 2021, the year for which data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is most recently available, there were at least 1,477 intimate partner homicides, more than 70 percent of which were committed with a firearm. Of those — and consistent with figures from previous years — almost 80 percent of the victims were women.”
This article details the couple’s relationship, the obvious red flags that flew around it, and the basic protective laws that could have helped change the predictable, sad ending to the tale.
Check out the full article here.
We offer this article to add to the discussion during this Domestic Violence Awareness Month. If you need help, check out the National Domestic Violence Hotline website or call (800) 799-7233.