As a victim and survivor of domestic violence, I strongly agree that those accused and convicted of the crime should lose the right to bear arms. People convicted of nonviolent crimes lose their right to bear arms, so why should an abuser be any different? Allowing an abuser to carry a firearm is like leaving a child molester on the street to commit such heinous acts again.
All the murder cases of women in an abusive relationship somehow or another involve a weapon. And many times it is not the first time the victim made a report of the abuse. Not only should the government take away the right to bear arms, they should also pass down harsher punishments for abusers.
I reported abuse numerous times, though he was only convicted twice. Both times he received two weeks in a county jail. Even after I received my order of protection, which within one week he violated 4 times, he was finally arrested when he was caught red-handed on my porch with a metal pole waiting on me to arrive home.
If I wouldn’t have had the police follow me home that evening I would have became just another statistic. Yet he still only served 61 days in the Department of Corrections.
Once he was in jail I had to leave my apartment because 61 days of him being able to decide what his next move was, the best thing for my safety was to leave. Because the law is truly designed to protect the abuser.
Many women have been through what I experienced, yet a lot of them never lived to tell their story. Many because their abuser was released from custody and returned with a vengeance. I firmly believe if the laws were stricter and designed to remove the right to bare arms as well as carry any kind of concealed weapon, the acts of domestic violence in this country would lessen greatly.
Abusers would be scared of the punishments that they would face, instead of feeling like they face no real jail time. The laws should also be designed to protect the victim more.
When an officer of the law can look a victim in the face and say without a witness there will be no way they can arrest the abuser, that shows you who the law is set up to protect. Innocent until proven guilty?
Without the government regulating the laws and enforcing them better, domestic violence will grow increasingly more common. There will be more stories of abuse victims dying and their abuser having gotten plenty of slaps on the wrist prior to the finale.