cantor lost his bid for reelection, and political reports he will be resigning from congress on august 18. he has asked the virginia governor's office to hold a special election so that his replacement can begin immediately instead of in january. the judiciary committee held a hearing recently on gun filings against women and pending legislation, that would add additional protections to the violence against women act. during the hearing, the committee heard from a witness who talk about how his life changed as a result of gun violence against his sister. this is two hours. >> good morning, everyone. the hearing will come to order. i'm delighted to see you all here and i welcome the witnesses, thank them for coming. member, the ranking distinguished senator from iowa. i welcome senators klobuchar and

blumenthal. we evidently have a vote scheduled at 10:45. i plan to recess the hearing briefly to allow us catch the end of one vote, the beginning of the next and reconvene. that will take 15 minutes total. just so you all know. on june 18, carmen cruz was watching television with her eight-year-old son, travis, when her ex-boyfriend, frederick escobar, broke into her and calmly walked towards her, carrying a pillow. when he was just a few feet away from mrs. cruz, mr. escobar pulled a gun from the pillow and pointed it at her and pulled the trigger.

travis watched as his mother collapsed, felled by a bullet shot by his own father. surgeryz spent hours in while doctors removed the bullet from her abdomen. she was hospitalized for three weeks and were a colostomy bag for almost two years following the shooting. is a passionate advocate in rhode island's to mystic violet's community. reminder serve as a that she is one of the lucky ones. american women are 11 times more likely to be killed with guns than women in any other industrialized country. as this chart shows, the red beyond any other industrialized country. way, women in the ofted states account for 84%

all female firearm victims in the developed world. let me repeat that. women in the united states account for 84% of all female firearm victims in the developed world. of all the women murdered in this country, more than half are killed by family members or intimate partners. in aa gun is present domestic violence situation, it increases the risk of homicide for women by 500%. protecting women from gun violence by domestic abusers should not be and has not been a partisan issue. in the late 1990's, congress passed important laws prohibiting the possession or purchase of firearms by individuals convicted of misdemeanor domestic violence or subject to domestic violence protective orders. these laws, part of the violence against women act, an amendment authored by the late senator frank lautenberg, complement to

the prohibitions on convicted felons him and passed congress with broad bipartisan support. these laws have saved lives. in states with rigorous background check laws, 38% fewer women are shot to death by intimate partners. but they are not enough. domesticaw prohibits abusers from possessing guns only if they are or were married to the victim, if they have lived with the victim, or if they have a child in common with the victim. dating partners who have been convicted of domestic violence offenses are not covered, even though the most recent data shows that more domestic abuse is committed by dating partners and spouses. closing the dating partner loophole would save lives, plain and simple. there are other steps we can take as well. these include requiring universal background checks and helping states collect and share the data necessary to ensure that those who we already agree

should be prohibited under existing law are in actual practice and fact prohibited when they try to purchase firearms. along these lines, i'm willing to work with anyone who wants to strengthen the national instant criminal background check thatm, or nics, to ensure it operates as congress intended it to. nobody on this committee has been working harder than senators blumenthal and clover the roleshine light on of guns in domestic violence, and to address the loopholes that allow abusers to use guns. about we will hear more their initiatives, and i want to thank them both at the outset for their commitment and their efforts. i would like to thank chairman leahy for his leadership in reauthorizing the violence against women act last year, and his long-standing recognition of the role of guns in domestic violence. that this isioning not a hearing about the second

amendment, or the right of law-abiding americans to own firearms. wants on this committee to deprive individuals, women or men, from legally owning guns, and none of the solutions we are here to discuss involve doing that. what we are here to consider is domestic violence situations threaten american women, and how best to ensure that those who should not possess guns do not possess guns. numberstand there are a of domestic violence survivors and advocates here with us today . i would be honored to recognize them right now, if they would not mind standing up. [applause] thank you. i would also like to submit the

statements of our chairman, senator patrick leahy, of bonnie laura ponce, katie ray town for gun safety, and the national center for victims of crime into the record. without objection, they will be added to the record. thank you all for your support of this effort and for your courage. i would like to welcome all our witnesses and thank them for participating in the hearing, and turn the microphone to my distinguished ranking member, senator grassley. >> bonnie campbell is a former attorney general of the state of iowa. we are here to discuss a very important subject. thanks to our experts, who have agreed to be panelists for us, all of us want to see the federal government take appropriate action to assist in fighting domestic violence, and especially domestic, sides. -- homicides.

i have met with many victims of domestic violence over the years. i feel compassion for the physical, mental, and emotional injuries they have suffered, and you particularly feel that when you talk to people that have experienced that. they have told me of the fear that they confront. i want to take effective action against perpetrators of violence against women. today i am one of the lead republicans in a group of bipartisan senators who have come together on a bill to address sexual assault on our nation's college campuses. to me, all domestic homicides are a tragedy. it does not matter how the victim dies. 45% of the domestic, sides now do not involve -- homicides now do not involve guns. 1996, i had the pleasure of voting for the lautenberg amendment. those convicted of domestic

violence misdemeanors were prohibited from owning firearms. so were those against whom permanent restraining orders were entered, because of domestic violence. for these prohibitions to be effective, records of the convictions and restraining orders must be entered into the national instant background check system. the chairman just spoke about his interests in that, for that to be an effective system. now,stresses me that even all these years later, according to the center for american only 36 states have submitted any domestic violence misdemeanor convictions, and of these 21 states, have submitted 20 or fewer of those records and an even smaller number of states regardingtted records restraining orders. 19 states have submitted domestic violence restraining order records, and of these nine

states, have submitted 10 or fewer. ". i know the rhode island has submitted exactly zero misdemeanor domestic violence records, and exactly zero domestic violence restraining orders to records. the corresponding numbers to delaware is zero. illinois 1-0. new york 0-10. vermont 2-0. the states are failing to do their job. -- iowa ranks the number one state in this regard but we still have to do a better job in my state. as a report says, "if all states submitted records of misdemeanor violence convictions at the average rate of these priests rates -- these three states we

can predict there would be 2.9 million records in this category, more than 40 times the number submitted." this means a large number of prohibited persons under the law today can purchase a firearm through legal means because the instant background check system fails to identify them as such. full of holesm is with respect to the current gun prohibition. greatly reducing the effectiveness of background. last year senator cruz and i offered an amendment to legislation before the senate. theould have helped fix next system. our amendment would have improved state compliance with reporting for mental health records for prohibitive persons. it received the most bipartisan support of any similar legislation but it did not move because it did not receive the 60 required votes. we should do the same with respect to persons who have been a ofcted of that --

domestic violent crimes. should be able to gain bipartisan effort to enact legislation of this type. that is not the majority approach. there are two bills before the committee on the domestic gun violence. one of them from senator klobuchar includes dating violence beyond the cohabitation relationships in current law as are as convicted stalkers added to the list of prohibited persons. osenator blumenthal also expands and wantsionship those subject to temporary restraining owners -- restraining orders -- problem exists with completion to background checks on the law. it is hard to believe that expanding the universe of prohibitive persons went back on checks are not reform would reduce gun homicides.

i fear that false hopes are being raised. in many states few persons are convicted of misdemeanor stalking. in maryland, zero were convicted of that crime last year. one in arkansas, five in new mexico. these persons will not accomplish very much even if their records make it to the these bills expand retroactively the list of prohibited persons. not by virtue of their crime but bypassing of the legislation. andwill spend the time personnel to go over every violence and record to determine whether they fit the definition of these bills? who is going to actually input those records? suppose someone determines a priorsly that

conviction was for conduct against a dating partner. of what recourse will the individuals have to demonstrate that he is not a prohibitive person? taken from a be prohibitive person? how soon will officers be diverted from another law enforcement activity in removing those guns? restraining order provisions poses some problems. temporary restraining orders issued without notice to defendant do not lead to permanent orders. if the constitutional rights of the accused could be taken out theout to process pit of -- constitutional rights of the accused could be taken out without due process. we should also be very skeptical that the temporary .rder would be entered into

making existing mixed records more complete is far more likely to make the difference in domestic violence homicides, especially gun homicides, than the bills the committee is considering creative -- is considering. for instance, a cold that your bill was introduced more than a year ago. only as we are about to head out of town for the very few hasslative days remaining this hearing taken place responding to the requests. number of daysa until the election grew sure to the committee scheduled a hearing. the the committee has held marked up -- has not held a markup for bills for two weeks now. we had the time to work together to come up with a bipartisan solution. opportunity inl

this congress for a bipartisan effort to combat intimate homicides of all types. us deal with are problem. i hope that going forward we will work together to find bipartisan well practical ways to protect women and men. thank you. >> because senator klobuchar and senator lumen tall have shown so much leadership in this area they have requested making opening statements. i will recognize the two of them for opening statements. first senator klobuchar. >> thank you. thank you senator grassley. you to senator blumenthal for his work in this area.

tragically we have had a number of major shootings that have killed multiple people in the last few years. we see newtown to nevada there is more to be done in terms of closing loopholes and our background check system. i would point out that some of the issues raised are good ones about the record-keeping. in states that do require a background check for private handgun sales, 38% fewer women are shot to death by their intimate partners. i havermer prosecutor seen firsthand how domestic violence and sexual assault can destroy lives and tear apart families. i ran an office of over 400 people.

i was charged with protecting domestic violence victims and enforcing the gun laws. it was one of my major priorities for those eight years. one of the things i learned as a prosecutor is there is still more work to be done. this over the of christmas holiday in 2011. i went to one of the saddest funerals i ever attended for officer sean schneider. he was a lake city police officer with three children. received aent had domestic violence call from a 17-year-old victim. officer schneider was just doing his job and showed up at the door that day. no one could have protected him with the perpetrator shot him in the head and killed him.

only a week ago the officer had been there with the family at the church nativity play. his three little children walk down the aisle. that is what this is about. the law decided to include a provision that i worked on with kay bailey hutchison. passing that bill was a critical step in protecting women. there is more to be done. report found 57% of mass shootings involve domestic violence. that is why last july i introduced, along with the

senator, the domestic violence and stalking victims protection act. our commonsense bill would help protect stalking victims and keep guns out of the hands of dangerous people. stalkers --e that many states are starting to do this. one in six women have been stocked in their lifetime. stalking is often the first step in a pattern that: eights and physical violence. the department reports that 76% of women who were murdered by intimate proper -- i intimate partners were stopped by their partners. right now people who aren't married and haven't either live together or had a child together are covered under the current definition of intimate partners. --eful trouble because

despite what we committed in domestic violent crime been subject to restraining order. many states have already expanded the definition of intimate partners to dating partners. i have been proud to stand up with this -- stand up for this bill with gas the -- with gabby gifford. we value hunting and the doubtful -- and the outdoors. duck or pheasant season it is deer season. the answer is clearly no. is about preventing a person with a history of domestic violence or stocking

from having a firearm. i know senator blumenthal has been working on these issues as well, especially for dating partners and temporary restraining orders. i want to thank him for his leadership. one of the things that just a set is our bills looks to strengthen the method violence ought to bring them more in line with the current laws that many states have dealing with crimes of violence toward women and same-sex partners. these bills are simple. on anre designed to focus area where we have seen rampant violence. i want to thank all of our witnesses for being here and i hope that our colleagues will join us in supporting these bills. i have been very close several times. i know we are going to get it done.

thank you very much. >> thank you for convening this hearing and advocating measures fortop domestic violence permitting this hearing to go forward. i want to salute and thank my colleague, who has been so steadfast and strong in advancing this cause. i want to thank the other members of this committee, anduding senator durbin -- the manystein

advocates around the country who championing commonsense measures to stop violence and -- the twoolence together are a toxic deadly combination. likelyre five times as -- more likely to die from domestic violence when there are guns in their household. i want to thank their survivors. i know how much courage and strength it takes for you to be with us. there is anything i could say here or anywhere else -- i want to say particulars that particular thanks to her family.

their daughter was a victim of domestic violence. she chose not to accept. she displayed the courage her parents taught her and decided to break with it. as many of you know that decision takes such a enormous bravery and resoluteness. he took with her her 18 month old twin and left her abusive husband and decided to begin a new life. her active storage -- her active courage should have liberated

her. instead she became a victim. and this time fatally. her strange husband tracked her and in her mother's house he used the gun that he was still legally allowed to possess and to seriously injure her mother. mary and doug jackson are with us today. you fory grateful to joining us. lori jackson sought a temporary restraining order. it should have protected her. law failed her. granted that restraining order after

determining that her husband posed a clear threat to her safety and the safety of her children. even after that determination her husband was still able to keep the gun that killed her. even if he hadn't possess that gun he could have legally purchased a new one. even at the moment of heightened he had learned that she had left and was seeking int restraining order -- most states somebody subject to a temporary restraining order can lose access to his house, to , buthildren, to his car under federal law he can still keep his guns. some may be considered too dangerous to see their son. of but not too dangerous to buy handguns.

loophole, abused victims are the least protective by the laws of our nation. at the moment they are in the most danger. hurray likely to be physically harmed because of the rage and grasp of their estranged spouse or intimate partner. they're less protected than any other time. during that. will -- during that period when a judge 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.

the justice system should be helping the potential victim. unfortunately and tragically most victims are still at the mercy of their abusers, despite the courage that jackson demonstrated in breaking with an abusive spouse. introduced a measure, the gun homicide prevention act to make sure there are incentives and resources and grants available so that they will enforce these laws. these are provided with grants under this legislation and encourages them to get illegal guns out of the hands of dangerous people and gives them the resources to do so effectively. and enforcement, as i know from as an background --

federal law enforcement officer is the key to making the law real in people's lives. federal law is the shadow of what it should be in protecting against gun violence and domestic abuse. i want to recognize again the whosands of men and women have become victims as a result of gaping -- their strength and encourage will inspire me. justice lori jackson cause parents being here today shouldn't give us the strength to and the make this law real. thank the advocates that were before us today on

this panel. mr. chairman, thank you very much. >> to i understand you wish to make a statement? >> i know we want to hear from the panel. i want to recognize the attendance of mr. daniel. he is going to tell us the sad story of his sister. declaration early in his statement where he is a conservative constitutionalist member of the nra. he comes to us today still asking for protection for women like his sister and others who might have a chance. thank you, mr. daniel, for being here. >> will the witnesses please

stand to be sworn? testimonyirm that the you will give here today it looks -- here today is the whole truth? i'll introduce the whole panel and then we will go through their testimony. i'll introduce jaclyn campbell, who is the chair of the johns hopkins university school of nursing and the national program foundation of the nurse faculty scholars program. 20 12 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 violence. she has served on the board of violence -- of five demented violence shelters. she has published more than 225

has extensive policy related services nationally and internationally related to women of violence and she has cut a vacation short to be with us. we are particularly honored she .s here i -- he is here. a phd in history and specializes in constitutional law, legal history, and war. he is the author of seven books and numerous articles and the popular press. of him her book, the origins -- her book -- after her we will hear from sheriff christopher. he was elected sheriff in 2010 in wisconsin.

in that role he established the first ever domestic violence specialist position in the state. i understand that it is his son's 16th birthday. we are particularly grateful for .is participation i know your son must be very proud. -- neck soon we'll hear from judge mccaffrey. he is called philadelphia his home since the age of five. he has made a career of public service, serving as a united states marine. justice mccaffrey is the lead on problem-solving courts across pennsylvania, as well as the justice for special court justices of pennsylvania. he has been at the forefront of creating veterans courts.

already introduced by senator joins us.on daniel if he is here to share the story , who was killed by her estranged husband, just days after he would -- after she obtained a restraining order against him. it highlights only too well the urgent need for universal background checks. we are very grateful mr. daniel is here and thank him for coming. we have a terrific panel, lead us off. >> i'm grateful for the opportunity to testify in these important hearings. i will present data on my own search of homicide of women as well is important research and national databases among the top eight. i testify today as a citizen, as and with the

endorsement of the american academy of nursing. as has been said, has a higher homicide rate than all countries and among the highest rate in the world. the country, as was said, the rate was exceeded by 11 times -- must -- much of the state of violence against women is committed by intimate partners. fbi supplemental has the most complete national database with information on the relationship of the perpetrator to the victim. the most recent data available from 2011, at least 45% of the murders from women -- murders of women were committed by an ex

husband or boyfriend. if we only examine the house -- the homicide were the perpetrators relationship to the victim was identified, 54 percent of homicides to women are committed by a, boyfriend, or former husband. many were 10 times as women killed by a current husband or boyfriend or ex-husband as by a male stranger in that database. the majority of this violence is perpetrated with firearms. --re were 1700 females single offender incidents. of those incidents of which the weapon could be determined, most of those homicides were committed with firearms. 51% than with any other weapon. killed byalso partners or exporters when they are pregnant.

dr. diana cheyne examined medical records of women who die during pregnancy and the first postpartum year. firearms were the most common message -- common method of death. 68%. partner was the perpetrator and more than half those incidents. in a national study of pregnancy associated homicide, firearms accounted for the majority of the homicide. the majority of those perpetrators were not married to their victim. research provides further insight on how firearms affects

the mystic abuse. explain why existing federal laws restrict certain domestic abusers from buying or possessing guns. a majority of abusers will use a gun to threaten or injure a victim. two thirds of those abused women said their intimate partner used a gun against them. the 71.4% threatening to shoot or kill her and 5.1% actually shooting at her. most rigorous research available is the by anal 12 city study ex-husband or ex-boyfriend, conducted by myself or my colleague. in this study we compared a

group of abused women who were murdered by their partner or ex partner to another group of abused women who were not. factors we for other found that gun axis or ownership increased the risk of homicide over and above prior domestic violence by .4 times. when the perpetrator committed suicide after killing his -- neither of those studies found evidence that women who frequently use firearms to defend themselves against abuse or that access to a firearm reduces the risk of upicide -- in leading abusive dating partners ignore the perpetrators of a large and

growing share of intimate partner homicide. the department of justice data shows that the shares of domestic violence committed by dating partners has been rising for three decades and boyfriends now commit more homicide than two spouses. the supplemental homicide report does not accurately count for ex-boyfriend's. this is growing. estimating from our study we find that approximately 300 to homicides should be added to the 1 -- to the 1000 already counted. together they represent 48% of those male domestic violence perpetrators in our study. therefore it is an extremely

important way to keep women safe and to save lives. -- alsoalso left evidence that state laws strengthened firearm prohibition . studies,ate important one of the 46 of the largest cities in the united states, and one of state-level data found that those restricting those are associated with reductions and into the partner homicide, driven by a and those committed by firearms. found it -- along with entering state the mystic violence restraining orders into the federal database, reducing homicide of women by 12 to 13%. overall into homicide by 10%. in conclusion women who suffer

these are most important for society to protect freedom congress has an opportunity to do so by strengthening the laws to keep the mystic abusers from getting done. ample scientific evidence also shows that in doing so you will save lives. with a quote from a woman i interviewed, who is the mother of one of the women who was killed in their study. she said, please let her story be told. don't let her death be for nothing. thank you. >> dr. malcolm. invite -- iike to like to thank the committee for inviting me. i think we can agree they all have the same goals here. the current law are not perfect

but they have the great virtue of long-standing traditions of american law. fundamental to our scheme of ordered liberty. these bills do violence to the right of the second amendment. most importantly i think to do process, providing due process in the normal way. i would like to start with some to -- some statistics. a fact it is very seldom advertised is that homicides in this country have been down sharply for the past 20 years, as well as other violent crime.

of the last time that the crime low, gasoline was $.29 per gallon. the average american working person was earning $5,807. for us to remember gas and $.29 per gallon. of violence, which is much more the focus of this between has also fallen 1993 and 2002. in 10 violent victimizations involved family violence. most a simple assault. less than one half of 1% of victims are killed. the proportion of female oficides during this time people or women who are killed by guns is also down.

and clover sure bills pose various problems for andright of the individual protection against unreasonable search and seizure. there is this new focus on expanding to cohabiting individuals. depending on what you regard as harassment. large numbers of people who are likely to be convicted or are convicted of simply verbally harassing somebody may be accused of firearm.

the most concerning thing is the change in the temperate restraining order. the temporary restraining order person -- that the after they file for this and --er the near allegation home searching for guns or any other weapons they find without any kind of hearing. in other words, as the red queen it is sentence first and verdict afterwards. half of those who have been cited as potentially dangerous have been found not guilty. all of these people had their weapons taken away from them first and then sometime later

there would be a hearing at which they would be allowed to produce some kind of evidence to the contrary. is making thist retroactive so that anyone who of harassmentcted or had a temporary restraining order against them would lose their rights. they no longer have a right to these arms for the rest of their lives. the intention is there to do good and to protect women. i think both of these have the wrong approach. is wrong to deprive people of their basic rights and to deprive people of the right of due process and opportunity to present evidence before they're .ctually treated

i would like to just conclude the majority of opinions where he ends by saying instrument of constitutional rights take certain policy choices off the table. people canetter ways be protected without violating the rights of anyone in the process. >> we now turn to the sheriff. thank you for being here. >> thank you, mr. chairman. you for hosting this hearing today. i have been officer for 20 years. i am a conservative republican and i ask you to caught -- to pass to commonsense laws that will protect our sisters, daughters, and mothers.

as the top law enforcement , i have seen firsthand the tragic events. i want to talk to about one such the mystic violence incident. terry and nikolai was abused and left for dead by her ex-husband. after three years of a violent of leap -- of a violently abusive marriage she had the courage to divorce her husband. on that horrible cold january day in 2004 he beat her with a baseball bat and then she tried to fight back. her, filled gagged a garbage can full of snow, pushed her into the garbage can and kept her there for 26 hours. my partner and i were the lead

investigators in this particular case and through some great breaks and great luck we were able to rescue her before she died. as a result she had a miscarriage and lost all 10 of her toes and both feet to frostbite. wonderful of the most people i know and has been a tremendous advocate for victims of abuse. we have become very close since then. i have been moved by his sister story. i am proud to say that we are the first in the state to have a full-time domestic violence specialist. we work closely with domestic violence victims to see how we can best protect them. any couple to you that domestic violence calls are the most a dangerous calls that law enforcement officers will respond to. the last thing the victim needs and the last thing my deputies

need is a dangerous abuser armed with legal weapons. in fact according to fbi statistics 150 law enforcement -- cers i'm proud to work on a great the mystic violence with wisconsin. -- on a great domestic violence bill with wisconsin prieto it was signed by our republican governor scott walker. this first bill is protecting domestic violence and stalking victims, introduced by senator: sharp. -- by senator klobuchar. new block people from stocking convictions from having guns. -- it would -- it would lock people with stocking convictions from buying guns.

according to fbi data, more women are killed by abusive boyfriends than abusive spouses. a couple of hours later, sheriff gilbert was killed by her ex-boyfriend and a domestic -- domestic is few. according to the news report she had been seeking a restraining order. a restraining order is not good enough. if you have never been married to an abuser, federal law will likely not stop them from buying or purchasing a gun. requirend bill would criminal background checks for gun buyers who shop with unlicensed sellers. abuserslaw prevents from buying guns. this gaping hole simply means a convicted wife beater can slip through the claque -- slip through the crack's.

this is exactly what happened in our state. he was legally prohibited from possessing a gun because of a restraining order. instead of shopping at a gun dealer he found an ad for a nine millimeter glock and a local newspaper. he reached out to the seller. there was no background check. the seller did ask this question. of you are not going to go out and kill someone are you? he killed both of his children, ages one and two at the time. we see the terror that abusers create. we see the impact on their lives, their girlfriends, and their children. we are major proponents of policing and counting. we have a community of 200,000 people.

i want to know our laws are doing everything we can to keep guns out of abusive hands. i'm here to speak with victims of abuse and for my deputies. i made it a priority to talk with victims. i have seen escalation over the years. an abuser has a gun, victims will tell me it is not a question of if you will use that weapon against me, it is a matter of when. i am asking you today to stand up against abuse by fixing our out of date laws and passing some clear commonsense legislation. thank you for your time. >> thank you very much. we will go ahead and hear from judge mccaffrey. and then we will see how the vote is going. we may break after that to go get the two votes in.

i want to wait until the end of the boat. -- until the end of the vote. >> good morning and thank you for the opportunity to address the members of this community about the pending legislation and the growing domestic violence. it appears to me that the above them more in-line with the laws that many states have dealing with crimes of violence against women. a clearly laudable goal. of my adult life in law enforcement. those include 20 years as a police officer and detective. i am a justice of supreme court of pennsylvania. mystic violence

at literally every level of our system. i can say with certainty that our law enforcement community finds itself. senators show up after the fact. i was one of those. i would show up after the fact. so much of the time i saw a crime in the streets and people getting victimized in the streets of our city. impetus for me to go into law school. i really felt that people needed somebody. i agree we should have boyfriends and dating partners -- dating partners.

out, imalcolm points a cop hearingg about the victims to a jurist. if we have to focus on the fact that we have two parties here. we have the accused and the accuser. the michael was always to level the plainfield. -- my goal was always to level when i was field and a cop in my daily we did not have that opportunity. we can enact all the laws we want. i'm out there where there are meets the road. -- where the rubber meets the road. it to be so important. the frustration was as follows,

victims are terrified. senators get to court they oftentimes have memory loss. i'm sure you sought, they do not want to move forward. they do not have the support network. just as an example, only 35% of our preliminary psa's become permanent. people aren't showing up. they are afraid. of order our ring position firearms -- order our ring is a should of firearms. -- ordering barring possession of firearms.

we have the technology to give law enforcement the capabilities. gps is available to them so they can track people under their supervision. around discussion purposes now -- and keep in mind the mystic violence isn't just about firearms. the majority of domestic werence cases i have seen done with knives and blunt objects. i like to think of it as a major epidemic in this country. domestic violence is still out there. people are going to make it happen. despite whatever laws we put on the books, to me what i think is important is being proactive. right now through technology we can get our officers gps assisted support so the patrol

officer in the neighborhood can know if the stocker, who is now wearing a gps device on their ankle, on their wrist, is now approaching certain proximity of the victim. it comes up on their smart phone , whether it is a mile or the block. the same officer is notified. the officer responds and gets there and we prevent the violence. it is about prevention. if we don't have prevention what thate going to do you go is -- what are we going to do? earth can stand up and say that they are really not supposed to mystic violence? everyone of us has a mother. some wives, some daughters, some granddaughters. none of us have seen anything like this happening.

legislation is great. first time here. day -- somef the woman is going to be battered. that same woman has probably been battered for years. she looks to her five children and she cannot escape. take it to court what we get? motions are down. case disappears, we have a frustrated prosecutor and even more frustrated court. my point is we need to do something to make them happy. you want to send a message out there, but that bracelet on. it will be stripped, it will be swift, it will be really bad for you. want to talk about the turns, it can happen. my point to you is there are ways we can adjust to violence well beyond violence dealing

we still have a growing epidemic mystic violence. is -- i strongly support bringing in the partners and boyfriends. our state has a creative -- has it. >> we should probably take a run for the vote. if mr. daniel, you would be patient with us, we will be recessed for 10 minutes to 15 minutes to get over to the floor and back. as soon as i am back we will come into session.