Domestic Violence Survivors And Advocates Fly-In To Call On Congress To Pass Background Checks To Save Women's Lives

38 Percent Fewer Women Killed in States That Require Background Checks For All Handgun Sales; 90 Percent of Americans Support Comprehensive Background Checks

***MEDIA AND EVENT ADVISORY***

WASHINGTON, Oct. 28, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Domestic violence survivors and advocates from across the country will come together on Wednesday, October 30 in Washington, DC to urge Congress to pass common-sense gun law reforms that will save women's lives.   Their fly-in marks the end of Domestic Violence Awareness Month and efforts to highlight the life-or-death role of guns in domestic violence:

• On average, 46 American women are shot to death each month by current or former intimate partners.
• The presence of a gun in a domestic violence situation makes it five times more likely that the woman will be killed. 
• Over the past 25 years, more intimate partner homicides in the U.S. have been committed with guns than with all other weapons combined.
• In 2011, 44% of women murdered with guns in the U.S. were killed by current or former intimate partners.
• More than half of mass shootings involve domestic violence.  In at least 57% of the mass shootings between January 2009 and September 2013, the shooter killed a current or former intimate partner or family member.
• Women in the U.S. are 11 times more likely to be murdered with guns than women in other high-income countries.
• In states that require background checks for all handgun sales, there are 38% fewer women murdered by intimate partners.

What:  Domestic violence survivors and advocates urge Congress to support common-sense background check legislation that will save women's lives

Who:  Participants (not all speaking)

• Senator Richard Blumenthal (CT)
• Senator Chris Murphy (CT)
• Congressman Mike Thompson (CA), Chair of the House Gun Violence Prevention Task Force
• Congresswoman Elizabeth Esty (CT)
• Congresswoman Gwen Moore (WI)

Survivors

• Hollie Ayers (PA), estranged husband shot her and killed their two-year old son
• Yvonne Crasso (CT), sister of domestic violence victim
• Maribeth Dalauro (NY), domestic violence survivor
• Elvin and Cheryl Daniel (WI), brother and mother of Zina Daniel Haughton, who was shot and killed by her estranged husband, a prohibited gun purchaser who bought a gun without a background check online
• Marcia Drake (WV), Executive Director of the Domestic Violence Crisis Program in West Virginia and domestic violence survivor
• Sarah Engle (WI), ex-boyfriend shot her and killed her mother
• Christy Salters Martin (NC), gun owner, shot by her estranged husband

Advocates

• Susan Beehler, North Dakota chapter leader of Moms Demand Action
• Kim Gandy, President and Chief Executive Officer, National Network to End Domestic Violence
• Beth Meeks, Executive Director at the Louisiana Coalition Against Domestic Violence
• Suzanne Palmer, Program Director at the Crisis Line and Safe House in Georgia
• Rita Smith, Executive Director of the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence

When:  Wednesday, October 30, 2013
10:30 AM

Where:  Cannon Room 421
Cannon House Office Building  

About Mayors Against Illegal Guns
Since its creation in April 2006, Mayors Against Illegal Guns has grown from 15 members to more than 1,000 mayors from across the country. The coalition has more than 1.5 million grassroots supporters, making us the largest gun violence prevention advocacy organization in the country. The bipartisan organization, co-chaired by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Boston Mayor Thomas Menino, has united the nation's mayors around these common goals: protecting communities by holding gun offenders accountable; demanding access to crime gun trace data that is critical to law enforcement efforts to combat gun trafficking; and working with legislators to fix weaknesses and loopholes in the law that make it far too easy for criminals and other dangerous people to get guns. Learn more at www.MayorsAgainstIllegalGuns.org.

CONTACTS
Erika Soto Lamb, [email protected] or 646.580.5281
Stacey Radnor: [email protected] or 202-870-6668

SOURCE Mayors Against Illegal Guns