SPOKANE, Wash. — On Tuesday, Governor Jay Inslee is expected to sign the assault weapons ban along with two additional bills enacting tougher gun laws. It's something that many domestic violence advocates, like Jeanette Hauck at the YWCA Spokane, are looking forward to.
"For us at the YWCA, what we really feel like is it's gun control in its proper gun management," Hauck said.
Hauck is the CEO of the YWCA Spokane. She says that guns in the hands of an abuser can often make an already scary situation worse.
"56% of the fatalities that happen for women who are experiencing intimate partner violence, it's coming at the hands of a gun," Hauck said.
Domestic violence rates in Washington state, and particularly Spokane, are already high. According to the Spokane Regional Domestic Violence Response Team, in 2020, the domestic violence rate in Spokane County was double the state average.
In just the first six months of 2022, 39 people died as a result of intimate partner violence in Washington state. That’s according to the Washington State Coalition Against Domestic Violence. Not all of these deaths are attributed to guns, however. Morgan Colburn, the director of advocacy support at the YWCA, says the numbers are still striking.
"Women are five times more likely to be murdered by an abuser if a gun is present,” Colburn said. “So, guns raise the lethality of domestic violence significantly."
The YWCA and their domestic violence response partners consist of members of the Spokane Regional Domestic Violence team, community advocates, and law enforcement, like Detective Josh Laiva with the Spokane Police Department. He's one of many people charged with ensuring that anyone found guilty of domestic violence no longer has access to a gun.
"Usually, one of the things that's going to happen in that first appearance is they will put what's called the domestic violence no-contact order in place," Detective Laiva said. "Part of that order usually includes a surrender of firearms."
If a person has a domestic violence protective order issued against them, by law they must surrender all of the guns to the police for them to hold until the protective order expires.
"I think one of the reasons the importance of these firearms surrender laws is because those two weeks after a domestic violence survivor attempts to leave their abuser, is the highest risk weeks of their life," Colburn said. "Which is why we found that the removing of firearms at the time of a protection order or at the time of a criminal charge of domestic violence happens, we are trying to reduce that fatality risk of a victim."
In 2021, 531 guns were surrendered to law enforcement from people issued a domestic violence no-contact order. In 2022, that number increased to 813. This year alone, nearly 200 guns have already been surrendered. While advocates say they are happy about the progress they're making in the legislature, they still say there is more work to do.
"The more we raise awareness about what domestic violence is, the closer we can be to lowering the incident," Hauck said. "And perhaps someday eliminating it."
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