A Statement on Today’s Shootings in Virginia and San Francisco

Our hearts go out to the victims of this morning’s tragic shooting in San Francisco and to Rep. Scalise and the other victims in the Alexandria, Virginia shooting.

Sadly, tragedies like this are becoming all too common – particularly those perpetrated by men with histories of domestic violence and child abuse. It was reported that the gunmen from today’s Virginia shooting had previously been arrested for gun violence, abusing women and beating this daughter.

We wrote about this phenomenon last year after the Pulse Nightclub shooting in Orlando. We call it Day 3, named after the amount of time it usually takes for the news to come out about the killer’s background. In today’s case, the news about his prior domestic violence arrest was revealed immediately, which is hopefully pointing toward a new phenomenon – one in which we start to take seriously the correlation between domestic abuse, mass shootings, and gun violence.

According to an analysis by Everytown for Gun Safety Support Fund, “In at least 76 of the cases (57%), the shooter killed a current or former spouse or intimate partner or other family member, and in at least 21 incidents the shooter had a prior domestic violence charge.” International incidents with “lone-wolf” attackers have shown similar patterns – angry men with histories of violence that were not taken seriously

Our mission is clear: we must restrict men with histories of violence from getting weapons that can kill and injure so many people, and we must take domestic violence and children’s exposure to violence seriously. Our futures depend on it.

Esta Soler
Founder & President