The problem with domestic violence is not the tool used to commit the abuse

I am truly saddened by the recent and tragic murder-suicide involving the NFL's Jovan Belcher - such a needless loss of life.

I am also outraged that Bob Costas, the anti-gun media, and other anti-gun groups would focus their attention on an inanimate object - the tool Belcher used - instead of focusing directly on the root cause behind domestic violence.

For Costas to blame "the gun" for the tragic domestic violence death, instead of focusing on the real problems of mental health, and physical abuse turned domestic violence worldwide, is an outrage. Our mothers, daughters, and sisters are counting on us to focus on the real issues surrounding domestic violence in an effort to end the cycle of fear, intimidation, and death that silently follows many every day of their lives.

Domestic violence continues to be a leading cause of death for girls and women between the ages of 15 and 44 worldwide. That's right - the leading cause of death worldwide! The causes of domestic violence have nothing to do with the manner in which the physical abuse is carried out. We have all heard the tragic stories of women being the victims of domestic violence through strangulation, drowning, beating, and stabbing. It's not the means of violence used, it's the fact that the uncontrollable violence against women exists.

For Bob Costas, and others like him, to use the senseless murder of Kasandra Perkins by Kansas City Chiefs linebacker Jovan Belcher to focus on anything other than preventing future domestic violence, and the causes of such violence, is nothing short of enabling another domestic violence death.

For Bob Costas to state that "if Jovan Belcher did not possess a gun, he and Kasandra Perkins would be alive today" shows his ignorance.

The simple fact is gun control does not work, it has never worked, and quite simply you cannot legislate the evil from a person's soul. You can, however, educate and bring the silent killer to the forefront of
mainstream social discussion.

Domestic violence should not happen to anybody, ever. Maybe if Bob Costas would have used his ability to reach millions of people, to plead that those suffering from this silent affliction reach out for help, out of their private hell, instead of spewing anti-gun propaganda, lives of victims like Kasandra Perkins could have been saved today.

Sean Maloney is a Buckeye Firearms Association Region Leader, a Second Amendment Rights attorney in West Chester, OH, an NRA Benefactor Life Member, NRA Election Volunteer Coordinator for Ohio's 8th Congressional District, an active NRA Instructor, serves on the "Grassroots Development" committee of the National Rifle Association and received the NRA's 2011 "Jay M. Littlefield Volunteer of the Year Award."

Additional Information: FBI Crime Stats: You are more likely to be killed by hands and feet than by a shotgun or rifle