Domestic violence victims allowed to get gun permits in North Carolina

[GarKeeper]

http://www.ncleg.net/gascripts/BillLookUp/BillLookUp.pl?Session=2005&BillID=H1311

Passed the state house.

[SteppingRazor]

1. Cool.

In the law, the abuse victims are allowed to apply for the temporary gun permit only after the court has issued a protective order.
This law seems fine by me. The next time some drunken redneck lays a hand on his kids and wife, she'll have a big surprise for him.

[cornermouse]

2. Not necessarily a good thing.

As I recall, statistics indicate women tend to get sent to prison for shooting or otherwise harming hunbands, boyfriends, or exs. I think its called the double standard.

[SteppingRazor]

4. Maybe in general,

But not when the husband or boyfriend in question has a restraining order against him, I would think.

[wakeme2008]

3. Does not sound wrong to me

A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

AN ACT allowing domestic violence victims to obtain a temporary concealed handgun permit upon showing proof of a protective order issued under Chapter 50B of the General Statutes in order to empower domestic violence victims to protect themselves and their families.

I have no problems with the victems of domestic violence to get a temporary concealed handgun permit.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

5. 2nd Amendment right to shoot your spouse. How droll.

Well, maybe those tarheels haven't figured out how to dial 911.

[GarKeeper]

6. By that point

your dead.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

10. No alternative to murder?

The person couldn't flee? Call the cops? Whack him with a baseball bat? Scream her head off? Get a friend/relative to stay with her?

C'mon even North Carolinians have some capabilities to come up with solutions other than killing.

[lukasahero]

11. How about discussing the alternative to beating the shit out of your

wife/girlfriend/lover. Oh no we can't have a woman able to defend herself, that would be wrong. But the guy beating her up, not so much.

Baseball bats can be taken away by a stronger male. Flee? I think that's already part of the scenario where she got a restraining order and he's not supposed to come near her. Scream her head off? So what, her kids or her parents can come to her rescue and get beaten themselves?

This law allows her to carry a concealed weapon to protect herself in case the person who has been successfully abusing her comes back. None of your scenarios present a realistic alternative.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

13. I am NOT defending the abuser.

I came from a very abusive family. I was abused myself as a kid. When I was 15 I split. Any number of times, had I been armed, I could have killed my stepfather.

I'm damned glad I didn't. Also, see my post below. My half-brother who shot and killed my father, paid a heavy price for killing. As did we all.

[bicentennial_baby]

7. Oh please

Sorry, but as someone who's been in one of these relationships, I think you're full of it. Dialing 911 isn't going to do shit when you have an abusive partner or ex-partner who's threatening you're entire family with a weapon. Hell, in the town next to mine, when you call 911 you get transferred to a state police barracks that is 30 miles away! What is a woman supposed to do then? I think this bill is a great thing for the women of NC.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

8. You appear not to be dead. What did you do? Shoot him?

[bicentennial_baby]

9. Actually

I pepper-sprayed him, and then proceeded to kick the living shit of out of him. Mind you, one cannot get pepper spray in MA, without a Class A Concealed Pistol Permit, which I got b/c of his violence. Also, he managed to shoot up my parents' house with a shotgun and rip all of the phones out before I subdued him. So much for dialing 911, eh? And yes, if I had a gun at the time, I would have shot his ass dead, in a heartbeat.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

12. So, there was an alternative to killing him.

My father was an abusive SOB. Beat the hell out of my mother regularly. One night he told her he was going to the bar for a few more drinks and return and kill everybody including himself. The house was loaded with guns.

Did my mother take the kids and flee? No.
Did she call the cops? No.
Did she call anyone? No.
Did she she get rid of the guns? No

What she did do, was to get my 15 year old half-brother to shoot him dead when he came back.

While I certanly sympathize with what happened to you, and having been a counselor to abused spouses (among other things), there are almost always alternatives to killing.

[bicentennial_baby]

14. I agree with you

but as you say, almost always. Also, you can shoot someone and subdue them without killing them, fwiw.

Truth be told, I hate that our society's solution to this issue seems to be the cultivation of more violence...I don't know if there is a way to get to the root of spousal/partner abuse, because it just seems endemic in so many places, across the globe. I also took a great women's self-defense course recently at college, and I feel fully able to cut a man down with my hands and feet, if necessary. Oh, and I don't hang around unstable gun nuts anymore either. :P

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

15. Unfortunately, spousal abuse is still all too acceptable.

"Real men..." You can fill in the blanks, I'm sure. I've more confrontations with abusive spouses, parents, children, than I care to remember in my work as a counselor. Every single one, without fail, saw themselves as the victims. "She (he, they) made me do it..."

When confronted with the simple question, "What else could you have done?", they were baffled for an answer. When given suggestions, i.e. "you could have left", "you could have sought help", "you could have talked", etc. They always responded with justifications for violence.

My worry with arming people is that it eradicates other alternatives with the "acceptable" method of killing.

I'm glad you didn't kill him. From my experience, the cost would have been very high for you and your kids.