Idaho Republicans need to stand against domestic violence or get voted out

The civics lesson on representative democracy that we all remember from school is that of an election sending a representative to the state capitol to vote the will of the people. Unfortunately, special interests in legislative assemblies sometimes overwhelm the democratic process by reminding the elected representative how “supportive” the lobby or interest group was in the last election. A particularly effective tactic is the threat of retribution in the form of a primary opponent for anyone who seems to have confused the will of the people with the will of the special interest.

In fact, this practice has played out recently in Idaho in a number of primaries, where arch-conservative candidates have taken on on Republican legislators not deemed pure enough by right-wing standards. Although the Merriam-Webster dictionary hasn’t figured it out yet, a new word, “primaried,” now describes the process by which the right wing takes out moderate Republicans in primaries. Legislators too fearful of a primary opponent simply cave in to the strongest prevailing wind coming their way from the far right, regardless of the merits of the legislation.

This was most evident in Idaho’s 2018 legislative session, when a majority of House Republicans showed how blind adherence to the loudest and most threatening voices from the right can endanger the lives of women who find themselves in dangerous and abusive relationships that too often lead to serious injury or death.

A report in the Statesman earlier this year counted at least 13 Idaho women who were killed since 2017 by their boyfriends, husbands or men in former relationships, using a rolling tally by the Idaho Coalition Against Sexual and Domestic Violence. And the count is likely higher since the ones reported are only those found in news outlets’ reports. Nationwide, firearms were used to kill more than two-thirds of spouse and ex-spouse homicide victims between 1990 and 2005. Domestic violence assaults involving a firearm are 12 times more likely to result in death than those involving other weapons or bodily force, according to the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence. Abused women are five times more likely to be killed by their abuser if the abuser owns a firearm.

Federal law prohibits those convicted of misdemeanor domestic violence from owning a gun, but state officials cannot enforce federal laws. State law bans gun ownership for felony domestic violence convictions in Idaho, but there is no ban for misdemeanor domestic violence here. Recognizing the inconsistency between state and federal law, Rep. Melissa Wintrow, D-Boise, introduced legislation banning gun ownership for two years for people convicted of any type of domestic violence in Idaho. To assure maximum support from both sides of the aisle, she requested and received an opinion from the Idaho attorney general that the legislation did not violate the Second Amendment. Apparently, that didn’t register with a majority of House members, as the bill failed by a 39-31vote.

Had the penalty in Wintrow’s bill been a lifetime ban, as federal law imposes, perhaps they could justify their vote, but a two-year “cooling off” period, allowing things to settle down between the parties, is hardly an infringement of Second Amendment rights, as the attorney general affirmed.

So what might contribute to the defeat of a reasonable effort to take guns out of the hands of those convicted of misdemeanor domestic violence? How could a legislator vote against a bill that would easily be supported by a majority of voters in any legislative district in Idaho?

Obviously, the NRA would hype its usual hysteria over any effort to limit gun ownership, but Idaho has a home-grown version of the NRA that puts the fear of being “primaried” in the minds of legislators who dare vote for any restriction on gun ownership, even if it results in death and serious injury to women.

The Idaho Second Amendment Alliance sprang into action and Republican legislators fell in line like toy soldiers. The 39 “no” votes that killed the bill were all Republican legislators, with all House Democrats and 20 Republicans supporting the bill. In addition to Speaker of the House Scott Bedke, who voted for the bill, one of the most respected Republicans supporting the bill was veteran Rep. Fred Wood of Twin Falls, a doctor who urged his colleagues “to stand with battered women and children today,” because he saw the effects of domestic violence in his practice over the years.

Unfortunately, the speaker’s vote and an appeal from a physician-legislator with personal experience with domestic violence couldn’t halt the run against the 2018 bill. God forbid that a vote for a temporary prohibition against owning a gun by a convicted domestic abuser should cause a primary election challenge. Even then-Gov. Butch Otter avoided taking a stand at the time with the specious claim that he had to see the bill on his desk first, as though governors never propose any legislation or urge legislatures to pass laws.

Worst of all, the bill did not even see the light of day in the 2019 legislative session, with Republican leadership making it clear that it would go nowhere. Legislative leadership seems committed to keeping its members from voting on a bill that either incurs the wrath of the gun lobby or casts them in the unfavorable light of voting against legislation that would save the lives of women in domestic abuse situations.

Some Republicans in the Idaho Legislature need a lesson on being “primaried.” Those who care about preventing violence against women should come together in 2020 and take on at least one of the 39 House Republicans who voted against the bill. It’s time to send a message to lobbies like the Second Amendment Alliance that “primarying” a candidate is a two-way street, and it can work in favor of battered women as well as those who misinterpret the Second Amendment and threaten legislators who vote to protect battered women. And it wouldn’t hurt if Republican leadership and their members grew some backbone and stood up to these single-issue lobbies that distort the will of the people and, in this case, endanger the lives of women across Idaho.

This story was originally published May 31, 2019 at 8:34 PM.