As of 2015, the most recent year with available data, South Carolina remained among the top five states for women killed by men, according to an annual report from the Violence Policy Center released on Friday. There is reason to hope, however, that the state’s dismal numbers could be improving.
Forty-six women lost their lives at the hands of men in 2015. More than half of them were killed with guns. Almost all knew their killers and about two-thirds were intimately involved with them.
Every year for the two decades in which the Violence Policy Center report has been compiled, South Carolina has found itself in the top 10 deadliest states for women.
Though the numbers are not yet available, there is reason to believe that South Carolina is a safer state for women today than it was three years ago, when the state Legislature finally moved to pass stronger criminal domestic violence laws largely thanks to a Pulitzer Prize-winning series by The Post and Courier.
Several of those laws and other additional reforms had not fully taken effect by the end of 2015, meaning that any changes would not be reflected in the total for that year.
But regardless of whether or not tougher domestic violence penalties have a significant impact on the number of women killed in South Carolina in 2016 and beyond, there are still some needed reforms that will help protect the state’s residents.
For one thing, a July ruling by the South Carolina Supreme Court rightly clarified that domestic violence laws now apply to same-sex married couples, too. But the language of the ruling could actually weaken protections for unmarried cohabiting couples of all genders.
So the ruling has been stayed.
It should be a straightforward fix for lawmakers or the high court to make it clear that domestic partners of all genders are covered by the law whether married or not. At the latest, such a clarification should be forthcoming when the Legislature reconvenes in January.
And given the high rate of women who are killed with guns, state lawmakers should take a tougher look at gun laws rather than working to dramatically weaken them, as some in the state House and Senate did during the most recent legislative year.
Chief among the priorities should be closing the so-called Charleston loophole that helped Dylann Roof purchase the gun he used to murder nine men and women at the Emanuel AME Church in June 2015. A drug possession charge ought to have raised a red flag during a background check.
Current law allows a gun purchase to proceed if a background check has not been finalized within a three-day window. Given that the overwhelming majority of checks are processed within minutes, the wait period could be extended indefinitely without inconveniencing most lawful gun buyers.
At the very least, the maximum wait period should be lengthened significantly. After all, a background check is useless if it has not been completed.
It will be telling to see how effective South Carolina’s stronger domestic violence laws have been when next year’s numbers are released. Hopefully, the state will see those numbers drop sharply.
Nonetheless, state lawmakers should not be complacent.
That domestic violence continues to claim the lives of women tragically underscores the fact that there is more work to be done.
— The Post and Courier, Charleston
