Women, try guns, not Orders of Protection

Sofia Garcia was a mother of three sons and a wife. Now she is a dead woman brutally murdered in her own home. Police suspect her estranged husband. While police are searching for Benito Casanova and Sofia Garcia’s three missing sons, others are searching for answers. Unlike the other recent murder victims in Chicago, she was living with a false sense of security.
Ms. Garcia, like so many other battered women, put her trust and security in an Order of Protection, that legal document issued by the court to help protect individuals from abuse or harassment.
While the intent of an Order of Protection is good, it is very flawed. Its biggest flaw is that it’s free. We all know that we get just what we pay for. It’s comparable to that free first 30-minute legal consultation. The second defect is that it’s too easy to obtain. The third is that it doesn’t really protect anyone.
Should a person, and in most cases those seeking such protection are women and children, want to get an Order of Protection against someone, they merely just have to ask for it. Some cases require the filing of a police report to prove such a threat exists. A temporary Order of Protection may be obtained without a high level of proof. This ease leads to a lot of frivolous Order of Protection filings. A jilted woman can claim threat of abuse and receive an Order of Protection. Only a judge can rescind an order. That doesn’t prevent both parties from violating the order after they have reconciled.
According to domestic abuse experts, women are abused many times before they call the police. Some experts also say on average a woman will file, then drop charges against her abuser up to seven times before finally following through with a complaint. It’s at that point of no return when women are most vulnerable to the greatest harm.
No government, social agency, nor individual can prevent a woman from being abused by a significant other. The sole person responsible for her safety is the woman. Therefore, I propose some changes be made when an Order of Protection is sought.
If we are really in the business of protecting abused women and children, make the Order of Protection more difficult to get. Put a price on it. Say, $100. That would curtail some of the frivolous filings. Some may argue that asking women to pay may be a financial hardship. If it’s done many times, that may be true, but anyone can find a few friends and family in time of real need. It’s not an insurmountable amount. And it’s a lot less than the bail some women come up with to free their abusers who have been arrested.
Include with the order, an application for a Firearm Owners Identification Card, commonly known as a FOID card, and the additional $5 application fee. Then require the filers to take gun-safety training. Rather than have police destroy guns that have been turned in for debit cards, police agencies could rent a firearm to battered women for $10 per month to protect themselves in their home. Of course, if the woman is an Illinois resident, she is on her own in public because she cannot get a Concealed Carry permit unless she is an elected official or “conservator of the peace.”
Should the Order of Protection be requested only to be rescinded, there should be a fee for that, too. If six to seven times is the average Order of Protections are filed and dropped, the court should reap the benefit.
A piece of paper, even one with a government stamp is not going to protect anyone. Protection orders are like red octagons, they only work when the individual has some respect for the law. Give women the real tools to protect themselves. Any male who knows that his potential victim has a FOID card but still gets within that predetermined boundary in a woman’s home will soon learn that FOID stands for found on inside dead.
There is an old saying, “there is nothing like a woman scorned.” We can add to that, “There is nothing like an abused woman with a FOID card.”