S7_ Ep 9: Policy Matters @Maitri- Presentation- 5

Now, we hear a lot about the tragedy, the horrific tragedy of mass shootings, including children who have lost their lives just going to school.

One of the things that I don't think gets enough attention is how often children are harmed in the context of their only-- on their own family.

So domestic violence impacts children and youth within the context of their own family.

We're talking about in twenty twenty-two, just some more statistics, at least eight hundred and sixty-six kids ages seventeen and younger were shot in domestic violence situations.

Six hundred and twenty-one of them died.

At the same time, two hundred and sixty-eight children were shot at school, seventy-five of them fatally.

Horrific.

Any loss of life, any harm and trauma that's resulting from easy access to firearms is completely intolerable, and we have to draw attention to this lesser-known area where children are being harmed and unsafe in their own home.

We also know that domestic violence isn't always taken seriously as a dangerous phenomena.

We spent decades treating it as a private matter to be resolved between the couple with separation, mediation, um, low intervention from the state.

There's some advantages to that in the sense that people are often embarrassed and afraid, and ad-advocates really push us as to understand that survivors need to drive and shape the remedy.

We can't just say state intervention's the best way to go.

But when we don't take reported domestic violence seriously, the results can be deadly, and we see that with over two-thirds of mass shootings having some connection to domestic violence.

So the Pulse nice club, nightclub incident, for example, his, uh, former partner talked about the level of violence and abuse she was subjected to too.

So with two-thirds of mass shootings connected to domestic violence means we have to do more to take domestic violence seriously, not only to protect that individual victim, children and family members in the household, but the community, as a community more broadly.