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Crandon shootings: A familiar tale of domestic violence and guns |
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From the blog- Pundit Nation
Monday, October 08, 2007
Crandon shootings: A familiar tale of domestic violence and guns
The early reports from Sunday’s murders in Crandon indicate the shooter was a former boyfriend of one of the victims. If that is the case, the nation’s latest mass killing will be an all too familiar intersection of domestic violence and easy access to guns.
The deaths in Crandon come just days after the release of a comprehensive study by the Wisconsin Coalition Against Domestic Violence that details family and intimate partner violence during 2005.
The numbers the group has assembled are bleak.
There were 236 deaths by homicide recorded by the state in 2005. The Coalition identified 34 incidents of domestic violence resulting in 46 deaths: 37 homicides, three fetuses killed, and six suicides. The 40 domestic violence homicides represent 19 percent of all homicides in the state in 2005, a 43% increase from 2004.
Guns play a major role in nearly all domestic violence incidents that end in the death of the victim or the perpetrator. Shooting is by far the most common method of killing victims, accounting for 21 of the murders, as well as all six of the recorded suicides.
And 2005 wasn’t an aberration. The Coalition reports that between 2000 and 2005, 118 people were murdered with a gun in domestic violence related homicides in Wisconsin—more than were killed by knives, other weapons, beating, strangulation, and other methods of killing combined
These numbers reflect national studies as well. The Coalition’s report notes recent research by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that finds “family and intimate assaults with a firearm were three time more likely to result in a death than those involving knives or other sharp objects and 23 times more likely to result in death than those involving other weapons or bodily force.”
The Coalition points to research showing that abused women who live in homes with guns are six times more likely than other abused women to be killed. Given that fact, it’s not surprising that a 2005 study found that guns are kept in homes where domestic violence is present more often than in homes that are not violent.
The Coalition’s report notes, as well, that the two domestic violence incidents that were ruled justifiable homicides in 2005 involved knives.
The entire report is worthwhile for the statistics, but much of it is heart wrenching. It contains narratives detailing each of the domestic violence deaths in 2005, including the story of Donald Pasold who shot his son in the head with a .22 caliber rifle before killing himself. Pasold’s son, Haidyn, was just 16-months old, and had been the focus of a bitter custody battle.
This is not an issue with any easy answers, and the Coalition notes that guns are but part of the problem. The state, the courts, and social service agencies need to adopt a more aggressive stance in dealing with perpetrators of domestic violence before they get a chance to kill their victims. Intervention, access to mental health counseling, and better training for police officers could all be part of the solution.
But easy access to guns continues to plague our society. For many years now, the gun lobby, with their vast financial resources and ability to turn out votes, has held enough legislators in check to prevent any meaningful reforms. To them, it hasn’t mattered how many Haidyn Pasold’s were victims.
And now Crandon. Maybe it will make some small difference.
I certainly hope so.
Posted by Michael J. Mathias at 5:43 AM
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