If there’s no global record and inquiries, there’s however local studies, that can provide us with an idea of the use of guns in domestic violence. In a report entitled « family protection in cases of domestic violence, Belgrade Courts’ practice », published last year by the Center of the Autonomous Woman Center in collaboration with Nis School for communication and education of women, numbers are shocking. Out of the 120 cases of domestic violence judged by the Belgrade Courts in 2007, one third took place in houses where there was a gun.
In 19,5 % of these houses equipped with guns, firearms were used as a mean of producing violence toward the women. Psychological violence with death threats: the idea that one should have to live everyday with the idea that maybe tomorrow, it would be over. Physical violence, when the arm was used as an object to hurt, wound. Or sometimes kill and end up on the newspapers headlines.
Another useful source in our quest of profiling armed domestic violence is of course the staff who works with the consequences of this phenomenon: members of associations working with battered women. I met several times with the activists of the Autonomous Women Center which quickly became a weekly regular stop for me. Visitors are welcomed on the Women Balcony, a small haven of peace on 5 m2… where they are offered coffee, juices… and where stories are told…
I give you their testimonies as regard situations they dealt with throughout their years of work. The first video is general and gives an overview of the phenomenon. You’ll find it on the French post, below this one. The second one could be entitled « Sample of stories » and tells concrete cases, associated with the stories I had shared with the Ombudsman…
Posted By Fanny Grandchamp
Posted Aug 14th, 2009