The Gun Issue - OF NOTE Magazine The Gun Issue | Page 62

Life size painting of one of the guns used to kill 26 people at Sandy Hook Elementary School on December 14 , 2012 . © Kadie Salfi , 2014 . Courtesy of the artist .

blue America . The alarming red of the gun , in addition to its connotations of blood and danger , harnesses the viewer ’ s attention before they encounter the more subtle handwritten content . The writing of the victim ’ s name is barely visible , an intentional decision by Salfi . It speaks to the invisibility and anonymity of victims of gun violence .

Salfi is careful to avoid mentioning the killers ’ names anywhere throughout the SNAFU series . By presenting the facts of the shootings , she refrains from imbuing her work with bias or blame . She is instead interested in capturing and preserving the reality of the moment .

This simplicity in her approach allows the viewer to focus on the scale of each weapon used , and their sizes , which range from a small handgun to a large automatic weapon . The point Salfi is trying to make here is that , ultimately , the type of gun used does not make a difference to the outcome — all guns kill , no matter their size or purpose .

In mass shootings , it is not uncommon for the gunman to have a history of domestic violence . In fact , psychologists are starting to uncover overt similarities between the possible motivations behind intimate terrorism of domestic violence and mass terrorism perpetrated by single attackers . On a surface level , both are attempts to assert power and provoke fear . There are plenty of examples to draw from : Omar Marteen , who killed 49 people in a nightclub in Orlando , Florida in 2016 , was a domestic abuser who severely beat his ex-wife . Ninety minutes after Cedric Ford was served with a restraining order in 2012 by his ex-girlfriend , he shot 17 people at his

Kansas workplace . In 2015 , David Conley methodically shot his ex-girlfriend Valerie Jackson , her husband , and six children in the head after breaking into her home in Houston , Texas .

In states that require background checks , 47 % fewer women are shot . This statistic proves that making access to firearms more difficult and having a more vigilant application process lowers the risk of gun-related deaths . Yet , there remains significant limitations to the federal laws set in place to prevent access to firearms by domestic abusers . For example , dating partners are not within the federal prohibitions . This is a problem as just as many women are killed by dating partners as by spouses .

As Salfi sees it , regulating who gets access to guns is a good start , but it will not abolish gun-related violence completely .

Salfi grew up in the presence of guns . Her father , an avid duck shooter in Vermont , kept his equipment in the basement of their Burlington home , a room which Salfi avoided . Salfi ’ s uncle also kept a gun in his home , one which he inherited from his father . When the artist was 28 , her cousin took his father ’ s gun and shot himself , taking his own life .

For Salfi , that pain was indescribable . She now resides in Ithaca , having moved there in 2007 from the Bay Area — and has witnessed how gun violence marks these very different cities .

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