Two domestic violence victims were shot by their exes yesterday.
Christina Franklin, 27, was killed early Thursday morning in North Las Vegas, Nev. as she dropped off her two young children at a daycare center. Her ex, who is the children’s father, shot Franklin, injuring their kids, ages 3 and 4, and then shot himself. According to Las Vegas Now, police are calling the murder a domestic dispute.
Not even 24 hours later, Eulalio Tordil, 62, fatally shot his ex-wife Gladys Ubaldo, 44, as she sat in her car waiting to pick up her daughters from High Point High School in Beltsville, Md. “Tordil had received a no-contact order in March as part of a domestic violence case,” NBC Washington reported.
UPDATE: After killing Ubaldo, Tordil fatally shot two more people and injured two others. Police have taken Tordil into custody. He has been identified as a Federal Protection Service officer who was placed on leave because of the no-contact order. According to The Daily Beast, after the domestic violence suit, Tordil surrendered seven guns.
To prevent tragedies like Ubaldo’s and Franklin’s, the Connecticut legislature passed a bill on Monday, which would prohibit firearms possession for people with temporary restraining orders against them. From ABC:
“We have a moral obligation to work to prevent needless tragedy and to make this the law,” [Malloy] said in a statement Monday. “Women in abusive relationships are five times more likely to be killed if their abuser has access to a firearm. When an instance of domestic violence rises to the point that a temporary restraining order is needed, we must do everything we can to prevent tragedy. Now, Connecticut will take a commonsense step towards strengthening and enhancing our gun violence protection laws.”
The state already bans people who have permanent restraining orders from owning firearms, but adding this extra layer of protection could eliminate “a critical window of time during which a victim’s life could be at risk,” ABC reports.
Conn. lawmakers are calling for Congress to follow their lead. From Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Connecticut said: “Abusers are often at the height of their rage after being served with a temporary restraining order, and this new Connecticut law removes deadly weapons from their hands before they can cause irreversible harm. The link between guns and domestic violence is a deadly one. We must act quickly. Lives are literally on the line.”
So what about Washington?
In January, Gov. Jay Inslee announced that he would work to reduce gun violence in the state by easing the data-gathering process, assessing whether state agencies are effectively enforcing Washington’s expanded background check law, and leading suicide prevention campaigns. However, as Heidi noted at the time, Inslee’s order doesn’t do much presently.
The Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence reports that Washington state does not currently have a law that allows authorities to remove firearms or ammunition at the scene of a domestic violence incident.
However, the state does have HB 1840, which protects domestic violence victims by making it possible for courts to ask domestic violence perpetrators who are deemed a credible threat by a judge to surrender their firearms. According to Joanna Paul, communications officer for the Alliance for Gun Responsibility, “1840 does not affect removal at the scene of a [domestic violence]. It seems that law enforcement are only allowed to remove firearms if the victim identifies weapons and approves the removal.
But the Alliance is hoping to change that. The organization is gathering signatures for Initiative 1491, which they hope will be on November’s ballot. The bill would allow for Extreme Risk Protection Orders, which will “allow family members and law enforcement to ask a judge to temporarily suspend a person’s access to firearms if there is documented evidence that the person poses a serious threat to themselves or others.”
On the organization’s Facebook page, AGR calls out a list of state politicians opposing gun control measures. From the Republicans: Reps. Jay Rodne, Dick Muri, Elizabeth Scott, Drew MacEwen, Kirk Pearson, Dan Kristiansen, Andrew Barkis, and Matt Shea; and Sens. Randi Becker, Pam Roach, and Michael Baumgartner. Democrat Reps. Tim Sheldon and Steven Hobbs weren’t excused, either.
This post has been updated since its original publication to provide an update that Eulalio Tordil was taken into custody.
