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Gun access increases lethality of domestic violence, advocates tell council
Summary
A gun‑violence prevention advocate told the council that presence of firearms dramatically raises the risk of homicide in domestic‑violence situations and urged cross‑sector approaches linking domestic‑violence prevention with gun‑safety policies and community violence intervention.
Gun‑violence prevention advocates urged the council to consider the relationship between firearms access and domestic‑violence lethality, saying local prevention efforts should coordinate with gun‑safety strategies and community‑based violence intervention.
"Domestic violence is a gun violence issue, and gun violence is a domestic violence issue," Ruth Zacker, CEO of the Massachusetts Coalition to Prevent Gun Violence, told councilors. Zacker cited national research presented during testimony: Everytown and Johns Hopkins work showing that the presence of a gun in domestic settings raises homicide risk and that a majority of mass‑shooting events include a domestic‑violence component.
Zacker said national estimates indicate that an average of 75 women per month are shot and killed by a current or former partner, and that access to firearms makes fatal outcomes much more likely. She urged the council to break down programmatic silos and to support cross‑cutting prevention that links healthy‑relationship work in schools and youth programming to community violence prevention and gun‑safety efforts.
Panelists tied the lethal risk to local incidents, including a shooting in Mattapan earlier in the week, and asked city leaders to maintain investments in community violence intervention programs, even as federal funding streams shift. Zacker cautioned that mass‑shooting and community‑violence data show a large proportion of events are connected to family or intimate‑partner dynamics, arguing for integrated prevention and data collection.
