He goes to the in-laws, demanding to know where his ex-wife is located. They don’t tell him, so he executes six people and a bullet grazes the head of the young girl who survived by pretending to be dead.

We cannot prevent all violence. We cannot predict every time someone goes on a rampage. But, that does not mean that many of these domestic violence homicides are not predictable. We do have some good tools for assessing domestic violence danger. They are not perfect, but they are helpful. And they could prevent many of these senseless deaths.

First of all, prosecute these abusers. Don’t plead them down to a misdemeanor without really assessing their dangerousness. If they have stalked, strangled, threatened to kill, threatened to kidnap or kill the kids: they are dangerous. If they have broken restraining orders, arrest them and violate them to the higher charge. They are dangerous. This is not rocket science. People who have weapons, make threats to their ex, and have committed dangerous acts of domestic violence ARE DANGEROUS.

If we want to keep slapping dangerous people on the wrist, innocent people will die. We have to assess these people for dangerousness and stop lowering charges without consideration of the real acts they have done.

Now they are saying this guy has mental health issues. Are they just figuring that out? I’m guessing they already knew this. Let me see: a violent man who also has mental health issues and has made prior threats. We should give this guy a reduced sentence? We should tell him we don’t take his violence seriously?

If we want to stop senseless deaths , we have to stop pretending that this isn’t predictable. Instead of wringing our hands, use the information we have and take these cases seriously. Stop this violence.