While many states, including Florida, have temporary bans on firearm possession and ownership for individuals who have active domestic violence injunctions, Oregon recently took things a bit further by passing legislature that would outright ban anyone with a domestic violence or stalking conviction from ever buying or owning a firearm.

With the number of mass shootings on the rise this will likely be the first of many new gun control measures that will be passed at the state level.   And while it may not appear on its face to address the increase in mass shootings, there is a very real connection between domestic violence in the home and the individuals that commit these shootings.

Statistically, in the majority of mass shootings in the US (54%) one of the victims was either a family member or intimate partner of the shooter.  With domestic violence being the cycle that it is, it is unlikely that these acts of violence were the first one’s directed at these family members or intimate partners.

Some of these individuals, like Devin Kelley who killed 26 people in Sutherland Springs, TX, had prior domestic violence convictions.  If a law similar to the one just passed in Oregon was on the books in Texas, Devin Kelley would have had a much harder time getting his hands on the firearm(s) he used to kill those 26 people