“The most violent element in society is ignorance” - Emma Goldman
I find it incomprehensible why Denton County Sheriff Tracy Murphree would pursue
“crafting a resolution that would declare Denton County a ‘Second Amendment sanctuary” in a state that already allows “any person, no matter what age, [to] possess a firearm as long as they are not a felon”. With some of the least restrictive laws of all the states, it’s not clear how such an action serves the public interest to protect those who could be targeted under a red flag law.
Texas is a pro-NRA state with a governor and state legislature that leans heavily toward legislation which ensures that gun industry’s sales do not diminish, even with purchasers who demonstrate a propensity to harm people.
The Violence Against Women Act (VAWA), first signed into law in 1994, “provided federal funds for services offered to survivors of domestic and sexual violence [that] enhanced the training of law enforcement officers in the area of sexual and domestic violence, and strengthened penalties for certain sexual crimes ...” This law has been reauthorized several times since 1994, often with adjustments or modifications. The latest amendment being offered is what has the NRA apoplectic.
In April 2019, the U.S. House of Representatives introduced legislation to reauthorize the act with modifications that, among other things, lowered the criminal threshold for barring the purchase of firearms by closing the so-called “boyfriend loophole” and restricting the sale of guns to individuals convicted of stalking. This lower threshold would seek to prevent “someone from buying a gun to include misdemeanor convictions of domestic abuse or stalking charges [where] current law applies [only] to felony convictions.”
Current statistics show that 72% of all murder-suicides involve an intimate partner with 94% of the victims of these murder suicides are female. The presence of a gun in a domestic violence situation increases the risk of homicide by 500%.
For Sheriff Murphree to go out of his way to safeguard the 2nd amendment rights of those who’ve demonstrated the potential to inflict serious harm and death on their intimate partner is at odds with candidate Murphree back in 2016 who once said “that he’d beat the hell out of a transgender person who tried to piss in a bathroom where Murphree’s daughter was peeing.”
It was an over-zealous reaction to what was then being discussed about allowing transgender people to use the public bathroom that they identify with. At the time, Murphree stated that “I identify as an overprotective father that loves his kids and would do anything to protect them”
Despite this violent posturing posed by a member of law enforcement, one can share the emotion as a parent towards someone they feel might conceivably harm their child. Why then this willingness to protect children but not adult female victims? Would Murphree not feel similar rage if, in the future, his adult daughter became a victim of gun violence from a jealous boyfriend?
The threat of gun violence has set the U.S. apart from every other industrialized nation making it one of the most dangerous places in the world to live and raise a family. Adding any more protections for gun owners is overkill.
Murphree needs to broaden his concern for innocent victims to include all daughters, wives and mothers. That doesn’t happen when you empower unstable individuals under the guise of the 2nd amendment.
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