In one mass shooting after another, some gun control advocates and journalists see a common thread: when domestic violence is not the immediate cause of a mass shooting, it was there as a warning sign in the history of the perpetrator.
On Monday, a husband murdered his wife, an elementary school teacher, and an eight-year-old child, opening fire on them in a classroom in San Bernardino, California, before turning the gun on himself, officials said. A nine-year-old student was also injured in the attack.
A shooting with three deaths does not meet most definitions of a mass shooting, though how such a shooting should be defined – and the precise numerical definition of the loss of life required – is sharply contested.
The multiple-victim shooting in an elementary school drew a strong response from local law enforcement, and nationwide media coverage. But the kind of violence that claimed the life of eight-year-old Jonathan Martinez and Elaine Smith, a 53-year-old teacher in a special needs classroom, is a daily occurrence.
Advocates say that nearly 50 American women are shot to death by former or current partners each month – more than one a day, according to national police department statistics.
Source: Domestic violence and guns: the hidden American crisis ending women’s lives | US news | The Guardian
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