Faith Leaders Are Joining the Call for Gun Law Reforms That Save Women’s Lives
Faith Leaders Are Joining the Call for Gun Law Reforms That Save Women’s Lives
Last week, an interfaith coalition spanning 36 faiths came together to deliver one simple, but monumental, message: Women and girls can’t wait for common sense gun control. The Interfaith Coalition Against Domestic and Sexual Violence at Jewish Women International (JWI)—which spans 36 faiths and encompasses faith leaders from across the country—called, emailed, and even tweeted to U.S. representatives and senators across the country on May 18 and urged them to take action on pending legislation in both chambers of Congress that would strengthen gun safety laws and save women’s lives.
via Maryland Gov and licensed under Creative Commons 3.0
National conversations about gun law reform date back to 1993, when the Brady Handgun Violence Protection Act—which mandated federal background checks for all firearm purchases—was signed into law by then-president Bill Clinton. Three years later, in 1996, Sen. Frank Lautenberg successfully amended existing federal law to include the Domestic Violence Offender Gun Ban, which has since prohibited convicted domestic abusers from possessing firearms.
Yet 20 years later, women remain in the crosshairs of the fight for gun control. *********Women in the U.S. are 11 times more likely to be murdered with guns than women in our peer nations.******* Two-thirds of intimate partner homicides involve guns. One in three women who are murdered are killed by their partners, and if there’s a gun in an abusive household their risk of dying shoots up 500 percent.
The Brady Bill and the Domestic Violence Offender Gun Ban were pivotal pieces of legislation, and they’ve undoubtedly saved thousands of lives. But remaining loopholes prevent those laws from being applied to their full potential. That’s where JWI—and two key pieces of legislation—come in.
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http://msmagazine.com/blog/2016/05/24/faith-leaders-are-joining-the-call-for-gun-law-reforms-that-save-womens-lives/
