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The most harmful person in a woman’s life is her significant other. Between 2003 and 2014, the Centers for Disease Control conducted a study of female homicide victims and discovered that 55% of them were victims of domestic abuse.
More than half of these killings involved the use of a firearm.
Domestic abusers frequently threaten their spouses with guns, even if they never use them.
Despite her attempt to protect herself from her violent husband by surrendering his guns to the police, Courtney Irby of Florida faced burglary charges instead.
After a divorce hearing, Courtney and her husband Joseph Irby got into an argument, and when Courtney departed the house, he followed her in his car and rammed her off the road. A domestic assault charge led to his arrest, and he spent the night in jail.
Courtney stated to Lakeland Police that “she feared for her life.” The following day, Courtney attempted to hand over Joseph’s assault rifle and handgun to the police, citing an injunction as a requirement.
Federal law prohibits people convicted of domestic abuse from owning firearms.
The officer at the station questioned Courtney if she had authorization to enter his residence, and she said no. “So you are telling me you committed an armed burglary?” the police asked, according to Lakeland Ledger. “Yes, I am,” answered Irby, “but he wasn’t going to turn them (the guns) in, so I am doing so.”
Courtney was sentenced to six days on one count of armed burglary for handing up the guns of a domestic abuser who was not legally permitted to have them at a time when she was afraid for her life.
Court records show Lakeland Police Officer Brent Behrens decided to arrest Courtney Taylor Irby on felony charges when she brought her husband’s guns to the police station to turn them in after his domestic violence arrest. Behrens was hired in April 2018: pic.twitter.com/xsEpY7QNyS
— Tom Cleary (@tomwcleary) June 21, 2019
Polk County State Attorney Brian Haas has received encouragement from Democratic state Representative Anna V. Eskamani to drop the charges against Courtney, warning that doing so would “create a frightening precedent that if someone seeks help to escape abuse, they will face consequences.”
Fortunately, the State Attorney’s Office eventually withdrew all charges filed against her in the case.
