‘Use my voice’: Missouri woman speaks out about gun violence for national awareness week

Leslie Washington participates in National Gun Violence Survivors Week as someone who has lost two family members in firearm deaths and as a survivor of domestic violence.

This is the fourth annual National Gun Violence Survivors Week, established to honor those who have survived gun violence or lost a loved one to it.

Washington lost two cousins to gun violence, one to suicide and another in a 2015 homicide in Missouri that remains unsolved. Her abusive ex-husband also threatened her with a gun after she left him.

In 2013, she fled from St. Louis to Cape Girardeau to get away from him. She had to live in a safe house for six months before she felt secure to live on her own.

But the threats from her ex continued to come. He harassed her family members for her location and posted an Instagram video of himself polishing a gun with a loaded clip laying nearby, threatening to find and kill her.

“I knew what was happening,” Washington said. “He was threatening me. He would often tell me he was going to kill me. Then, more than ever, I believed it.”

Last year, Kansas City experienced 13 domestic violence homicides, according to Kansas City Police Department data.

Statewide, 21 people were killed by an intimate partner, 16 were killed by a family member and over 4,000 aggravated domestic assaults occurred in the state, according to Missouri State Highway Patrol data.

Over 2,300 people nationwide died in domestic violence homicides in 2021, according to the Gun Violence Archive.

National Gun Violence Survivors Week runs from Feb. 1 to 7, marking the approximate time that U.S. gun deaths surpass the number of people who die from gun deaths annually in other high income countries, according to Everytown for Gun Safety. The week is organized by nonprofits Everytown and Moms Demand Action.

Matthew Huffman, public affairs director for the Missouri Coalition Against Domestic and Sexual Violence, said a gun is often used by abusers to control their victims, whether or not they fire the weapon.

“The use of a gun to threaten and intimidate someone is absolutely gun violence,” Huffman said. “It is the threat that this gun can be used against them to cause serious injury and death.”

As a part of the week, Washington, a Navy veteran and volunteer with Moms Demand Action, shares her story as a survivor to raise awareness on the threat guns pose to domestic violence victims.

“I’m never afraid to share my story. Because for nine years, I never had a voice. So now that I have a voice, I’m going to use my voice until my last dying day,” Washington said. “A lot of women are so afraid to use their voice, because they’re afraid of the repercussions.”

The value of a survivor speaking out about their experience is powerful, Huffman said. A prime tactic of an abuser is to make a victim feel isolated and alone.

“Being able to be in a place to feel comfortable sharing their story makes others feel comfortable,” Huffman said. “Power in numbers means collective action that amplifies survivors and demonstrates how intimate partner homicide is a public health and public safety crisis in Missouri.”

In 2020, over 30,000 Missourians sought services for domestic violence, according to data collected by the Missouri Coalition Against Domestic and Sexual Violence from partner agencies across the state.

If you or someone you know is in need of help, you can call the 24/7 National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233 or the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-4673.

You can also find services in your area at the coalition’s website.