Giffords Statement on the Domestic Violence Shooting in Burke, Virginia
October 22, 2019 — Giffords , the gun safety organization led by former Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, released the following statement in reaction to a shooting in Burke, Virginia that left two people dead and two officers injured after responding to a domestic disturbance call late Monday evening.
Statement from David Chipman, former ATF Special Agent and Giffords senior policy advisor:
“Today, Virginia woke up to another gun violence tragedy that left families torn apart and officers injured in the line of duty. We live in a system that allows dangerous people to get guns far too easily, turn them on their loved ones, and threaten officers simply trying to keep the community safe. It doesn’t have to be this way. Lawmakers in Richmond have refused to acknowledge the scale of the gun violence epidemic in Virginia and today’s shooting makes it clear yet again that we deserve leaders who will do what’s right and stand up to the gun lobby to pass gun safety laws.”
From 2001 to 2012, more than 6,410 women were murdered in the US by an intimate partner using a gun. Protecting the lives of American women and their families requires lawmakers to take steps to ensure that dangerous domestic abusers and convicted stalkers don’t have easy access to guns. Gaps in federal law that allow abusers and stalkers to purchase and possess guns are a key driver of the staggering levels of lethal violence against women in the United States. Polls show that 82% of Americans — including 68% of Republicans — support legislation that helps keep guns out of the hands of domestic abusers and stalkers.
The Republican majority of the Virginia legislature recently ignored calls for change by adjourning from a special legislative session following the Virginia Beach shooting two hours after convening—rejecting all gun safety bills. Previously, the Republican majority blocked over 50 gun safety bills in the past few legislative sessions alone, including legislation that could have prevented tragedies. For consecutive legislative sessions, Republican leadership in the Virginia legislature has refused to advance reasonable gun safety laws that would provide critical public safety protections to citizens of the state despite voters overwhelmingly showing support for the passage of gun safety legislation.
The actions by those lawmakers to block comprehensive gun safety legislation come at a time when every 9 hours someone in Virginia is killed by a gun in a crisis costing the state $5.3 billion a year. Giffords Law Center’s Annual Gun Law Scorecard shows that states that have passed evidence-based gun safety reforms have the lowest rates of gun death and injury.