Nationwide, the number of people shot to death by their intimate partners increased more than 20% from 2010 through 2019. Many of the shooters had prior convictions that made it illegal for them to possess a firearm. Yet no one took away their guns or stopped them from obtaining another one.
The federal government doesn’t track the number of people who are shot and killed by intimate partners prohibited from having firearms. Reveal from The Center for Investigative Reporting has found more than 110 victims over a four-year period who were gunned down by abusers barred from having weapons under federal law. That number is almost certainly a vast undercount.
Reveal would like to get a more accurate picture of how many people have been shot by offenders illegally possessing firearms. We want to determine what procedures could be put in place to prevent more killings. Do you know of someone who was shot by a domestic violence offender who was prohibited from having a gun? If so, please share your story.
Are you a policymaker, federal or state official, prosecutor, judge, or someone else with information we should know? Please email Reveal reporter Jennifer Gollan at jgollan@revealnews.org.
If you or someone you know are in danger or need help, please call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-SAFE (7233) or visit the National Center on Domestic and Sexual Violence at http://www.ncdsv.org/
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Help Us Investigate Domestic Violence Shootings
by Jennifer Gollan and Byard Duncan, Reveal October 9, 2021
Jennifer Gollan is an award-winning reporter. Her investigation When Abusers Keep Their Guns, which exposed how perpetrators often kill their intimate partners with guns they possess unlawfully, spurred sweeping provisions in federal law that greatly expanded the power of local and state police and prosecutors to crack down on abusers with illegal firearms. The project won a 2022 Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award and has been nominated for a 2022 Emmy Award.
Gollan also has reported on topics ranging from oil companies that dodge accountability for workers’ deaths to shoddy tire manufacturing practices that kill motorists. Her series on rampant exploitation and abuse of caregivers in the burgeoning elder care-home industry, Caregivers and Takers, prompted a congressional hearing and a statewide enforcement sweep in California to recover workers’ wages. Another investigation – focused on how Navy shipbuilders received billions in public money even after their workers were killed or injured on the job – led to tightened federal oversight of contractors’ safety violations.
Gollan’s work has appeared in The New York Times, The Associated Press, The Guardian US and Politico Magazine, as well as on PBS NewsHour and Al Jazeera English’s “Fault Lines” program. Her honors include a national Emmy Award, a Hillman Prize for web journalism, two Sigma Delta Chi Awards from the Society of Professional Journalists, a National Headliner Award, a Gracie Award and two Society for Advancing Business Editing and Writing awards. Gollan is based in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Byard Duncan was a reporter and producer for engagement and collaborations for Reveal. He managed Reveal’s Reporting Networks, which provide more than 1,000 local journalists across the U.S. with resources and training to continue Reveal investigations in their communities. He also helped lead audience engagement initiatives around Reveal’s stories and assists local reporters in elevating their work to a national platform. In addition to Reveal, Duncan’s work has appeared in GQ, Esquire, The California Sunday Magazine and Columbia Journalism Review, among other outlets. He was part of Reveal’s Behind the Smiles project team, which was named a Pulitzer Prize finalist in 2019. He is the recipient of two Edward R. Murrow Awards, a National Headliner Award, an Al Neuharth Innovation in Investigative Journalism Award, and two first-place awards for feature storytelling from the Society of Professional Journalists and Best of the West. Duncan is based in Reveal's Emeryville, California, office.
