A new study has shown a strong link between domestic violence and mass shootings.
The research, published in May in the "Injury Epidemiology" journal, found that two out of every three mass shootings between 2014 and 2019 were somehow tied to domestic violence.
"Most of those mass shootings had a link to domestic violence," Lisa Geller, the study's lead author and State Affairs Manager for the Coalition To Stop Gun Violence, told KCBS Radio on Thursday. "Either directly through the victims of those shootings, meaning they were family or intimate partners of the perpetrator, or the perpetrator had a history of domestic violence."
Those shootings were deadlier than ones without links to domestic violence, according to Geller's research.
"And that might be because these are incidents that are happening largely in homes, where there might not be an area to escape," Geller hypothesized. "Or, essentially, because these are more targeted shootings, and the motives are more clear."
Geller said the research indicates lawmakers can do more to disarm people who are found guilty of domestic violence. Such a verdict should mean firearms are taken away, but she said there isn't always enough follow-through from law enforcement to ensure it actually happens.
"If law enforcement or others involved in this process don't actually do something about it, too many people are able to keep these guins," Geller said.
