Student Murdered By Stalker Inspires Colorado Bill To Keep Guns Away From Domestic Abusers

Inspired by a student who was murdered by her stalker, a Colorado lawmaker has introduced a bill banning gun possession by anyone who has been convicted of domestic violence or has been the subject of a restraining order.

Senate Bill 197 is the first of four gun violence prevention measures being considered in Colorado’s Senate Judiciary Committee today. The bill would also require an individual with a restraining order against them to relinquish any guns in their possession within 24 hours. State Sen. Evie Hudak (D-CO), the legislation’s sponsor, was a teacher at the school where the student was shot after filing a restraining order against her killer:

Hudak said the student who was killed at the private business college where she was teaching had taken out a restraining order against her stalker, and “we were all told to keep an eye on her.”

“She appeared to have dropped out of school,” Hudak said. “A few weeks later they found her body.”

This unnamed student is hardly an unusual case. American women are at a higher risk to be homicide victims than women in any other high-income country. Over 90 percent of female homicide victims are killed by someone they know, and 76 percent of these victims were stalked before their deaths. Guns are the most common weapon used in these murders.

Pro-gun advocates have tried to frame gun rights as an issue of women’s safety, claiming that gun-free zones disarm women who need to protect themselves from sexual assault. Since an estimated two-thirds of sexual assaults are perpetrated by someone the victim knows, a gun would probably not help a woman defend herself.

In reality, women are much more likely to be on the other end of the barrel. Nearly 6 times more women were shot by a husband, boyfriend or ex than by a male stranger in 2010. Purchasing a handgun, according to some analyses, provides no protection against homicide and actually increases the risk of being murdered by a partner. Abusers who have access to firearms are over 7 times more likely to kill their partners. Even women who simply live in states with higher gun ownership are 4.9 times more likely to be murdered with a gun than women who live in lower gun ownership rates.

According to SB 197, Colorado is home to 41,244 domestic violence victims. The number of victims in the state rose dramatically by 11.6 percent between 2011 and 2012, compared to the 3.6 percent the year before.

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Murdered Woman’s Family Sues For Greater Online Gun Control

Jitka Vesel

On December 12, 2012, the family of shooting victim Jitka Vesel sued the online gun market Armslist.com for the wrongful death of their loved one, who had been shot about 12 times in a parking lot in Illinois, by a gunman who had illegally obtained his weapon on the website.

Vesel’s brother hopes that lawmakers — like those named to the President’s gun violence prevention task force, created in the wake of the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary — will address illegal online gun sales as they talk about measures to curb gun killings. Armslist does not require its buyers or sellers to give identification, and is not legally required to administer background checks:

“Armslist matches buyers and sellers solely based on Armslist’s mandatory drop-down menus that steer illegal buyers to illegal sellers,” Vesely said. “Armslist’s development of content thus materially contributes to the illegality of the gun sales it promotes.”

Jitka Vesel, 36, was shot 11 to 12 times by Smirnov in the parking lot of the Czechoslovak Heritage Museum in Oak Brook, Illinois, a Chicago suburb. Smirnov, a Canadian resident, had stalked her after she rebuffed his romantic overtures, according to Vesely. Smirnov, now serving a life prison sentence without parole, paid an extra $200 for the gun that had been listed for $400 because he couldn’t buy it legally, according to the complaint.

Background checks have indeed been part of the post-Newtown conversation about needed gun control measures; the President’s spokesperson floated the idea of closing the so-called ‘gun show loophole,’ which allows private sellers to distribute firearms without any checks on the purchaser. The Brady Campaign has found that, in some studies, “63 percent of private sellers sold guns to purchasers who stated they probably could not pass a background check.” Few lawmakers have addressed the idea of online black markets for gun sales, or websites like Armslist.com that do not have proper protections to ensure guns are not being sold to criminals.

Flawed federal laws also limit the ability of Vesel’s relatives to acquire evidence against Armslist in their civil suit. Several federal laws, known collectively as the Tiahrt Amendments, prevent trace data linking guns used in crime to previous owners and sellers from being used in civil proceedings.

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