Guns Over her dead body 1 | www.imjussayin.com
Gun violence in America is at epidemic proportions.  So much so that the killing of two people on 2 March 2018 at Central Michigan University was not enough to be a major news story. The media reserves the headlines for mass shootings.  So, the fact that gun owning partners kill women at an alarming rate is not going to make the headlines.  But it should, 80% of the people killed by guns every year in America are women. People want something done about gun violence.  But not at the expense of the antiquated Second Amendment.  So, it is guns over women’s lives but we can change that.

The stories of American gun violence begins and ends in the middle, with the shooting.  What the bullet does to the human body, the end story is ignored.  As is the beginning which commonly starts with men committing acts of domestic violence at home on women and children.

Women Beaters Should Not Have Guns

In America every 16 hours a man in a relationship with a woman, even as trivial as dating, shoots her.  So, when a gun is in the home the chances of a woman being murdered goes up 500%.

Now there are some restrictions on convicted domestic abusers or those under a permanent protective order buying guns.  However, the Lautenberg Amendment only applies to convicted abusers who are married, cohabiting or those with children.

So, there is a glaring loophole.  Mothers like the one in the Central Michigan University shooting, other female family and girlfriends romantic or otherwise are not protected.  The majority of mass shootings in America are based on family abuse and it is women who are the most affected.

The Lautenberg Amendment prevents spouses convicted of domestic abuse buying a gun.  But if they already own one 41 states allow them to keep it.

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White Men Should Not Have Guns

White male conservatives drive the gun culture and the gun problem.  Gun ownership is seen as a sign of patriotism despite the majority of shootings in America being committed by white men.

Politicians and gun defenders have obfuscated the pattern of domestic abuse and gun crime with talk of the Second Amendment and foreign terrorism.  But an American toddler is more likely to shoot a citizen than a foreign terrorist.

White-men are responsible for the gun violence.  If people of colour committed the same atrocities with guns, the Second Amendment would have been abandoned.  Just look at the violent opposition that white male conservatives and politicians apply to women over their own bodies and abortion.

Amending Gun Law

The Second Amendment remains at the expense of women but we can change that by getting active.  Women and men need to change the debate and talk about the deadly mix of guns and domestic violence.  Customers need to put pressure on businesses who back the National Rifle Association (NRA).  The First National Bank of Omaha’s ‘customer feedback’ stopped them issuing NRA-branded credit cards.  Join the boycott of Amazon and Apple, if they continue to carry NRA TV bundles. The pro-gun content includes programmes titled Love at First Shot.  Twitter users can get to tweeting #BoycottNRA on Twitter.

Women and children do not have to die because of rightwing white men’s obsession with guns.

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