On Sunday morning, a man who had left the Air Force after receiving a “bad conduct” discharge, and jailed for one year for domestic abuse opened fire on a church in Sutherland Springs, Texas, killing 26 and injuring 20 others.
Jezebel Features Editor Kelly Stout, Splinter News Politics Writer Katie McDonough, and I talk yet again about the incontrovertible link between domestic violence and gun violence.
“I think the weird thing about this is that we tend to only talk about it when it is connected to a mass shooting, but the reality of domestic violence homicide and the kind of daily violence that women in abusive situations face, and the kind of terror they face when their abuser has a gun, that kind of violence is way more pervasive and daily than these mass shootings that are usually the reason that we talk about it.”
This leads, of course, to a conversation about the myth of how much less danger a woman with a gun faces than one without one, and our justice system’s unwillingness to grant women the same legal protections white men are able to invoke, like Stand Your Ground.
We also change gears, offering a sprawling yet delightful roundtable of the stories of the week, including Donna Brazile’s forthcoming memoir and the utter dysfunction of the Democratic National Committee, and the Paradise Papers, explained in 30 seconds.
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