(Spencer)– Officials with the Centers Against Abuse and Sexual Assault (CAASA) are speaking out in favor of a bill making its way through the state legislature. They say it will go a long way toward protecting victims of domestic violence.
CAASA spokeswoman Rhonda Dean of Spencer tells KUOO news the measure, known as Senate File 2357, mirrors a federal law. She says it would prohibit possession of firearms by persons who are the subject of domestic abuse protective orders or have been convicted of a crime of domestic abuse.
Dean says research shows most intimate person homicides are committed with the use of firearms.
She says Iowa is only one of five states without such a law.
Dean says the federal law is not adquately enforced in Iowa because there are not enough federal agents and she says local law enforcement officials are hesitant to enforce federal law.
Dean adds the bill is about victims…NOT firearms. She says the ban would not affect those that have temporary protective orders against them…just those that have permanent orders against them at the conclusion of court proceedings.
Dean says in January alone, nine women were killed in Iowa with over 60 percent of those involving the use of firearms in some sort of domestic incident.
