Amanda's Law

            It has become increasingly evident that we need stricter laws protecting the victims of domestic abuse, stalking, or any case where a restraining order is warranted, especially if the restraining order has already been violated.  On August 27th, 2015, after violating a restraining order, James Colley, Jr was court ordered to turn in his firearms and attend a batterer's intervention class. He was allowed to leave the courtroom under those stipulations and placed on probation. He went to get a gun, then drove to the home he once shared with his estranged wife, where his children lived, and fatally shot her and a friend (Lindy Dobbins) that was visiting with her.  Her name was Amanda Cloaninger Colley.  They were both mothers of beautiful young children, whose lives have been changed forever. An absolute ray of sunshine, it doesn't seem possible that someone could want Amanda gone. In an instant he made their children orphans.  Her son and daughter's lives are forever tragically changed and there is nothing short of the grace of God that will change that. I am begging law makers to make this sort of thing a rarer occurrence instead of the growing tendency it has now.

            While I am aware that the victim could be male or female, for ease of writing and because it is Amanda's story that has inspired this I will use he/him as the perpetrator and she/her as the victim.

            The first thing I propose is stricter enforcement of restraining orders and harsher punishment for those who have violated them. Violating the initial restraining order proves that he has little or no regard for the law or respect for the initial order and should not be allowed to leave the courtroom on his own. He should be remanded to the jail for a specific amount of time deemed necessary by the court, if for no other reason than time for the perpetrator to cool down or time for the victim to find safe haven. One night in jail might have changed the outcome of Amanda's story. One extra day to think of how it would affect their children's lives and the lives of all those around them might have been enough to prevent this from happening.

            Secondly, because some people would kill the victim regardless of time to think of the consequences, is a stricter punishment that should offer the victim a sort of physical protection. First, I believe that if someone is court ordered to surrender firearms in any kind of case demonstrating violence, deputies should escort him to said firearms and collect them.  I'm not talking about more gun control, I'm talking about taking guns away from criminals. In the eyes of the law, he was a criminal before he took her life. Second, a restraining order is merely a piece of paper, and while it may be effective for some, in more dangerous cases, where there is a domestic violence history, threats, police reports, and/or injury, and those orders have already been violated, it is meaningless. We cannot protect people with a piece of paper. We can't afford to post deputies around the clock at their house so I propose an app or monitor for the victim and an ankle monitor for the offender. The app would alert the victim whenever the offender was near (distance to be decided by the court) to ensure that the offender couldn't purposely or accidentally come near the victim. Again I'm not advocating more gun control, I'm simply suggesting more protection for victims. There has to be a way to protect victims in these situations better than we are now. Please do not let Amanda and Lindy's deaths be in vain. We are asking that legislators look at the current rise in domestic abuse and please make stricter laws that will protect the victims.