This is from yesterday's
San Diego Union-Tribune.
Domestic violence is targeted by group
By Michael Stetz
STAFF WRITER
April 3, 2004
A San Diego County task force on domestic violence wants to put some muscle behind laws that require abusers to give up their registered firearms.
People convicted of domestic violence crimes and those who have restraining orders placed against them are supposed to give up their guns.
But there is no uniform, comprehensive system in place to make sure that occurs, said Patrick McGrath, a San Diego County deputy district attorney.
<snip>
The task force studied 61 domestic violence-related fatalities that occurred between 1997 and 2003 in the county and found that guns accounted for 44 percent of the deaths....For full copyrighted article please see
http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20040403/news_1m3violence.htmlWell, DUH!
The need for an effective system to take guns away from people who are known to be prohibited from having them seems so obvious, yet it has never been put into place. California has had a registry of all handguns sold legally here or imported legally into the state since 1968. But what good is a gun registry if you don't use the information to match up known criminals and people under restraining orders to the guns they own legally?
:shrug:
BTW - I recently started a thread on a related subject -
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=118x46443 - but nobody seemed very interested.
Our most important gun laws are not being enforced.