Disarming Domestic Violence
The first international campaign to protect women from gun violence in the home. The main goal is to ensure that anyone with a history of domestic abuse is denied access to a firearm, or have their licenses revoked.
An article, recently published Dag Bladet, one of Norway’s biggest daily newspapers, tells the story of Karin Bergsjø (56) who in 2001 was threatened with a gun by her long term partner in their home.
These are the results of a snapshot study conducted in districts of South Punjab including Multan, Muzafargarh, Rajanpur and DG Khan by IANSA members at Awaz Foundation Pakistan: Centre for Development Services.
We are delighted to share the news that the IANSA Women’s Network was a finalist in the first-ever Avon Communications Awards: Speaking Out About Violence Against Women for our work on the Disarm Domestic Violence campaign.
This activity report from the Gun Free Kitchen Tables (GFKT) project highlights progress and the tangible momentum achieved in 2011 to demand enforcement of an existing Israeli law restricting security guards’ authorisation to bear arms, to the guards' worksites only.
In 2011, the Conservative government, with its majority, won a vote in the House of Commons to dismantle and destroy the long-gun registry but it has not yet moved to push the Bill through the final stages in the Senate. If they do, seven million long-gun firearm records will be destroyed. IANSA women in Canada continue to advocate to save the registry.
In the UK, as in many other countries around the world, armed domestic violence is a hidden killer. The Disarm Domestic Violence campaign continues to highlight cases and share recommendations to help make women safer in their homes. Although British newspapers focus on street crime with guns, the majority of women murdered with guns in the country are killed in domestic violence incidents, usually with a gun that was owned legally.
In news announced on 13 January 2012, under new regulations being immediately introduced, anyone with prior criminal convictions for domestic violence or other violent or drug-related crimes will be not be allowed to own firearms. As we know, this is a crucial step towards prevention of armed domestic violence and making women safer in their homes and communities.
This article by the New York Times highlights the incidence of armed domestic violence in the US and reveals the ease with which criminals can retrieve their rights to possess and carry firearms, even with a criminal record and a history of domestic violence.
Politicians, criminologists and police have called for army-issue weapons to be kept out of the hands of lawbreakers after a young man with a criminal record shot and killed his girlfriend.
The Bahamas is considered to have a high rate of domestic violence and so the association between gun ownership and domestic violence may be a matter of concern if women are to be adequately protected from femicide where gun ownership is an elevating risk factor.