They are less protected than any other time. Ive offered legislation to close this loophole and require a period after the Domestic Abuser becomes subject to a temporary restraining order. During that period when a judge has found that someone possesses, someone poses a threat and issues a temporary restraining order, the subject of that order should be barred from purchasing or possessing a gun, and the Justice System should be helping the potential victim. Unfortunately and tragically and unacceptably, most victims are still at the mercy of their abusers rage despite the kind of courage that lori jackson demonstrated in breaking with an abusive spouse. Ive also introduced a measure, the gun homicide prevention act, to make sure that there are incentives and resources and grants available to states so that they will enforce these laws. These states are provided with grants under this legislation that encourages them to get illegal guns out of the hands of dangerous people and away from dangerous situations, and it gives them the resources to do so effectively. Enforcement, as i know from from my own background as attorney general of the state of connecticut for a couple of decades and as a federal Law Enforcement officer as United States attorney, is the key to making a law real in peoples lives, right now. Federal law is a shadow of what it should be in protecting against gun violence and Domestic Abuse. I want to recognize, again, the thousands of men and women who have become victims as a result of this gaping, unforgivable loophole in federal law. Their strength and courage will inspire me and i hope inspire this body just as lori jacksons parents being here today should give us the resoluteness and the strength to make this law real. I want to thank again them, the advocates who are before us today on this panel and, mr. Chairman, thank you very much. Senator durbin, do you, do i understand you wish to make a statement as well . Mr. Chairman, i know we want to hear from the panel. I want to especially recognize the attendance of mr. Elvin daniel whos a resident of and is going to tell us the sad story of his sister. Mr. Daniel makes a declaration early in his statement that he is a conservative, constitutionalist, member of the nra, and he comes to us today still asking for protection for women like his sister and others who might have a chance if we pass the manchintoomey background check to keep guns out of the hands of convicted felons and people who are mentally unstable as well as the klobuchar and blumenthal legislation to protect women who are victims of Domestic Violence and stalking. Thank you, mr. Daniel, for being here. Thank you, senator. Will the witnesses please stand to be sworn. Do you affirm that the testimony you will give here today will be the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth so help you god . I do. Thank you. Ill introduce the whole panel, and then well go through their testimony. I will first introduce Jacqueline Campbell who is the chair of the Johns HopkinsUniversity School of nursing and the National Program director of the Robert Wood JohnsonFoundation Nurse faculty scholars program. In 2012 she was recognized by the centers for Disease Control and prevention as one of 20 National Leaders in injury and violence prevention for her work related to domestic violation. Dr. Campbell is on the board of directors of futures without violation, has serve violence, has served on the boards of five domestic violation shellers and was a member of the congressionallyappointed department of Defense Task Force on domestic violation. She has published more than 225 articles and accept books and has extensive policyrelated service nationally and internationally related to women in violence, and she has cut a vacation short to be with us. To we are particularly honored that shells here. Joyce lee malcolm will testify after dr. Campbell, she is the Patrick Henry professor of constitutional law and the Second Amendment at george mason University School of law. She holds a ph. D. In history and specializes in constitutional law, legal history and law and war. Malcolm is the author of seven books and numerous articles for legal and historical journals and the popular press. Her book, to keep and bear arms, was cited by the Supreme Court in the recent Second Amendment case of District Of Columbia v. Heller. After her we will hear from sheriff christopher schmaling. He established the firstever Domestic Violence specialist position in the state of wisconsin. He has served as a Law Enforcement officer for two decades and resides with his family in the village of mount pleasant, and i understand that it is his sons 16th birthday today, so we are particularly grateful for his participation in this hearing. Its a pleasure to have you with us, sheriff, and i know your son must be very proud. Next we will hear from Justice Mccaffrey who was born in belfast, northern ireland, but has called philadelphia his home since the age of 5. Hes made a career of public service, serving his country as a United States marine, his city as a Police Officer for 20 years and his state as an appellate judge. Justice mccaffrey is the liaison for problemsolving courts across pennsylvania as well as justice to the special courts of pennsylvania. He has been at the forefront of creating veteran courts across pennsylvania. And finally, already introduced by his senator, senator durbin, elvin daniel joins us from illinois. He is here to share the story of his sister, xena, who was killed by her estranged husband just days after she on taped a restraining order against him. Unfortunately, xenas Story Highlights only too well the urgent need for universal background checks. We are very grateful that mr. Daniel is here and thank him for coming and for his courage. Let me begin now with dr. Campbell. We have a terrific panel. Lead us off. Thank you. Senators, i am grateful for the opportunity to testify in these very important hearings today. I will present data from my own research on Domestic Violence homicide of women as well as from other Important Research and National Databases on this topic. I testify today as a citizen, as a nurse, and when the endorsement of the American Academy of nursing. The United States has been, as has been said, has a higher homicide rate of women than all other westernized countries and amongst the highest rate in the world. This disparity is particularly pronounced for homicides of women committed by guns in which the country, as was said, the rate exceeds by 11 times the average rate in other industrialized countries. Much of this fatal violence against women is committed by intimate partners. Although neither entirely complete, nor without coding errors, the fbis supplemental homicide reports are the most complete National Database of homicide with information on the relationship of the perpetrator to the victim. In the most recent Data Available from 2011, at least 45 of the murders of women were committed by a current husband or boyfriend or exhusband. If we only examined the homicides where the perpetrator relationship to the victim was identified, more than half 54 of the homicides of women are committed by a husband, boyfriend or former husband. There were ten times as many women killed by a current husband or boyfriend or exhusband as by a male stranger in that database. The majority of this violence is perpetrated with firearms. The Violence Policy Center analysis of those 2011 murders of women, there were 1707 females murdered by males in single victims single offender incidents. Of those incidents of homicides in which the weapon could be determined, more of those homicides were committed with firearms, 51 , than with any other weapon. Women are also killed by partners or expartners when they are pregnant. In an important study of Maternal Mortality in the state of maryland from 1993 until 2008, dr. Diana chang and dr. Isabelle honor examined medical ohioan examined medical records of women who died pregnant. Homicides were the leading cause of death to those pregnant women and immediately postpartum. Firearms were the common method of death, 61. 8 . A current or former intimate partner was the perpetrator in more than half of those murders. And nearly twothirds of intimate partner homicide victims in this study were killed with guns. In a National Study of pregnancyassociated homicide, firearms again accounted for the majority of homicides, and a marriage of those perpetrators a majority of those perpetrators were not married to their victims. Research my peers and i have conducted provides further insight into how firearm access and Domestic Abuse elevates a risk of homicide for american women and explain why existing federal laws restrict certain convicted Domestic Abusers from buying or possessing guns. Survey research of battered women indicates when a firearm is present, a majority of abusers will use a gun to threaten or injure a victim n. A study by Susan Sorenson conducted with over 400 women in Domestic Violence shelters in california, twothirds of those abused women who reported a firearm in their home said their intimate partner used a gun against them with 71. 4 threatening to shoot or kill her and 51 actually 5. 1 actually shooting at her. Among the most Rigorous Research available on factors that influence a womans likely hood of homicide is the national 12city casecontrolled study of intimate partner homicide by a husband, boyfriend, exhusband or exboyfriend conducted by myself and my colleagues. In the study we compared a group of abused women who were murdered by their partner or expartner to another group of abused women who were not. Controlling for other factors, we found that gun access or ownership increased the risk of homicide over and above prior Domestic Violence by 5. 4 times. Gun access was the strongest risk factor for an abused woman to be killed by her partner or expartner. When the perpetrator committed suicide after killing his partner, it increased the gun ownership increased the chances of this homicide suicide by an adjusted odds ratio of 13. Neither of those studies found evidence that women frequently use firearms to defend themselves against abuse or that access to a firearm reduces the risk of homicide for the woman victim. In leaving out abusive dating partners, current prohibitions ignore the perpetrators of a large and growing share of intimate partner homicides. The u. S. Department of justice data shows that the share of Domestic Violence homicides committed by dating partners has been rising for three decades, and boyfriends now commit more homicides than do spouses. The supplemental homicide report does not accurately code for exboyfriends, and this is a category that is also growing. Estimating from our study, we find that approximately 300500 female intimate partner homicides each year should be added to the approximately 1,000 already counted in those supplemental homicide reports. Bill 1290, the protecting Domestic Violence and stalking victims act, would expand our national Domestic Violence laws to include both former and current dating partners who together represented 48 of those male Domestic Violence perpetrators in our study. And, therefore, its an extremely important way to keep women safe and to save lives. Theres also evidence and state laws to strengthen firearm prohibitions against Domestic Abusers reduce intimate partner homicides. Two separate important studies, one of the 46 of the largest cities in the United States and one of statelevel data, found that state statutes restricting those under Domestic Violence restraining orders from accessing or possessing firearms are associated with reductions in intimate partner homicide driven by a reduction in those committed by firearms. A study also found state laws that prohibit firearm possession by people under Domestic Violence restraining orders along with entering state Domestic Violence restraining orders into that federal database, reduced intimate partner homicide of women by firearms by 1213 and decreased overall intimate partner homicide by 10 . In conclusion, women who suffer abuse are among the most important for society to protect. Congress has an opportunity to do so by strengthening the laws to keep Domestic Abusers from getting gunnings. Ample guns. Ample Scientific Evidence also shows that in doing so, you will save lives. And i want to end with a quote from the woman i interviewed who was the mother of one of the women who was killed in our study. And she said please, let her story be told. Dont let her death be for nothing. Thank you. Thank you, dr. Campbell. Dr. Malcolm. Yes. First, id like to thank the committee for inviting me. The its a real honor to be present at this important hearing. I think that we can all agree that we have the same goals here, that we want to protect victims of Domestic Violence and, more generally, were interested in public safety. The current law on the books are not perfect, but they have the great very chew of virtue of according with longstanding traditions of american law by protecting the rights of everyone concerned, rights the Supreme Court defines as deeply rooted in the nations history and tradition, fundamental to our scheme of ordered liberty. And with due respect to chairman whitehouse, these bills that are behind this hearing do do violence to the right of the Second Amendment, Fourth Amendment rights against unreasonable search and seizure and, most importantly i think, to due process. Providing due process in the normal way. Id like to first start with some statistics to put this whole debate in context. A fact that is very seldom advertised is that homicides in this country have been down sharply for the last 20 years. As well as other violet crime. Violent crime. The last time that the crime rate for serious crime murder, rape, robbery and assault was this low, gasoline was 29 cents a gallon. And the average american working perp was earning person was earning 5,807. Its hard for us to remember gas at 29 cents a gallon. [laughter] the rate of Family Violence, which is much more the focus of this hearing, has also fallen between 1993 and 2002 and continues to fall. Only one in ten violent victimizations involve Family Violence. And most Family Violence is simple assault. Less than onehalf of 1 of the victims are killed. The proportion of female homicides during this time period of people who are women who are killed by guns is also down, but women who are killed by other means has gone up. The blumenthal and klobuchar bills present various problems for the right of individuals to keep and bear arms for the protection against unreasonable search and seizure and due process. Theres this new focus on stalking expanding to co non cohabiting individuals and involving not only serious incidents of actual violence, but bullying, a wide range of other acts under the definition of harassment which can be verbal and very vague and seems to often tend to grow depending on what you regard as harassment. Large numbers of people who are likely to be convicted or might be convicted of simply verbally harassing somebody might lose the right to have a firearm. The most concerning thing, i think, is the change in the temporary restraining order. The temporary restraining order would mean that the person who is alleging that they are endangered that have affile for after they file for this, after their mere allegation can send the police to the person that they are citings home searching for guns or any other weapon that they find without any kind of a hearing. In other words, as the red queen in alice in wonderland said, its sentence first and verdict aftera wards. And that is a true afterwards. And that is a true violation of the right of everyone to be heard. And, in fact, in temporary restraining order hearings in the past, half of those who have been cited as being potentially dangerous have been found not guilty. But all of these people would, in the future, have their weapons taken away from them paris, and sometime later there would be a hearing at which they would be allowed to produce some kind of evidence to the contrary. The other aspect that is troubling is making this retroactive to that anyone who is ever convicted of harassment or has a tempora