Retired ATF Special Agent David Chipman Responds to Shooting of Law Enforcement Officers in South Carolina

January 16, 2018

January 16, 2018 — A man shot and injured four law enforcement officers in York, South Carolina on Monday night. The officers, three York County sheriff’s deputies and one York police officer, were responding to a domestic violence call at 10 p.m. when the first shots were fired. Guns and domestic violence are a deadly mix. Abused women are five times more likely to be killed if their abuser owns a firearm, and domestic violence assaults involving a firearm are 12 times more likely to end in death than assaults with other weapons or physical harm. But it’s not just the victims of domestic violence that are put in harms way when an abuser has access to a firearm. When responding to calls for help, domestic disputes are the leading cause of death for law enforcement officers feloniously killed in the line of duty.

David Chipman, Senior Policy advisor at Giffords and a retired ATF Special Agent of 25 years issued the following statement on the shooting:

“All too often, responding to a domestic violence incident leads to gun violence, like the one last night in South Carolina where four officers were shot while serving their community. These brave men and women are trained to be ready for any scenario. Our nation’s gun laws make it too easy for dangerous people, like domestic abusers, to get their hands on guns and start a shootout with officers trying to keep people safe. While the frequency with which these shooting happens is alarming – we can never accept them as normal. Keeping our families, law enforcement and communities safe will only be possible when our lawmakers at the local, state, and federal level finally acknowledge this problem and pass laws that prevent criminals from getting their hands on weapons.”

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