Behind Domestic Violence: ‘We Are Awash In An Ocean Of Guns’
This isn’t news for the holidays, but it’s important to recognize in the growing anxiety over the frequency of mass shootings in the U.S.: The violence often begins at home, between domestic partners.
That’s the word from Jim Sawyer, a contributing writer to the
Security magazine blog, who warns that “As educators and professionals we need to meet the realities of family and domestic violence head on. This effort will require all of us to take an unwavering look at the dark and dangerous underbelly of our patriarchal culture. This is a culture that has minimized, marginalized and even normalized the horrific toll of domestic violence inflicted on women in the United States.”
“Nearly one million women living in the United States today,” Sawyer adds, “have been shot, or shot at, by an intimate partner.”
Finally, he summarizes, we should “include the reality of domestic violence and the link to mass shootings in every crime prevention-active shooter prevention effort. This has to happen.”
Sawyer adds: “The United States has a serious gun violence problem. The medical costs now exceed 200 billion dollars annually. As one former police chief commented after a busy weekend that involved multiple shootings, ‘We are awash in an ocean of guns.'”