THE BURNED OVER DISTRICT

More than your basic abused woman. Down in the Palmetto Bug State it is possible to get a court order on your abusive husband/boyfriend to keep him from shooting your dog but not from shooting you.

In South Carolina, state lawmaker and victim advocate Gilda Cobb-Hunter has found it easier to get court-ordered protections for family pets than to take guns away from domestic abusers.

For more than a decade, her state has maintained one of the worst domestic violence records in the country. Just last month, the state was ranked as the deadliest in the U.S. for women killed by men, largely in murders that involved guns. The report, by the Violence Policy Center, comes in the wake of a domestic violence reform law passed by the state’s General Assembly this summer. Ushered in by intense public pressure, the new law beefs up criminal penalties and ensures graduated gun bans for people convicted domestic abusers.

While it was largely seen as a step forward in domestic violence cases, the law stops short of forcing those charged with domestic violence to surrender their guns.

It’s a critical detail that could mean the difference between life and death for abuse victims, according to victim advocates like Cobb-Hunter. For years she has tried to find new ways to expand protections for abuse victims. Last year she was able to get protections for pets, which are often left vulnerable to attacks by abusers seeking to manipulate victims. Her attempt to remove from the picture the weapons most often used to kill abuse victims, however, met fierce opposition.

In a state with about one concealed carry permit for every 19 citizens, the debate over Second Amendment gun rights for offenders quickly overshadows the fact that South Carolina women are being killed with guns at more than twice the national average.

It seems that in the Palmetto Bug State, the 2nd Amendment and your marriage vows combine to let him determine when "death do you part".