My name is K.E.. I am the mother of two children, C.J.E., age 13 and G.E.E., age 10, both now deceased. We lived in Camden, Ohio. Shane Randal Elliott was their father and my abuser. In the end, he was also the one who took their lives. My children were shot by their father eight times total, in their faces while they slept. Shane died with one self-inflicted bullet to the head.

In 2001, I began dating Shane at the ripe young age of 17. He was 19. The year 2001 was nothing short of great. We never got into an argument, he never raised his voice, never seemed to have a dangerous bone in his body. By the time the end of 2002 rolled around, things were different. It started with small acts. Those small things were as simple as heated arguments, which at the age of 18, you think is normal because we all see our parents in heated arguments. Alcohol had been an issue with him since 2003. He began drinking at age 21. At first, he couldn’t stand the taste or the burn of alcohol but before long he was a full-blown alcoholic.

We married in 2007, had our first child in 2008. The heated arguments turned to pushing and shoving. He shoved food in my face, he strangled me several times, held me at gunpoint, and shattered my eardrums from screaming in my ears so intensely. When C.J.E. was just about 18 months old, Shane had been drinking one night and then wanted to go out with his friends. He was very angry with me because I thought he should stay home with C.J.E. and me. He picked me up off the couch by my hair and swung me around by my hair, then he got on top of me and head butted me. He then left with a gallon of beer from his kegerator and was gone all night. It was like this often once we had children.

The worst incident of abuse was in 2015. He had drunk 22 beers in 4 hours, then he dragged me from the bed by my feet, strangled me, hit me, slammed my head into the floor, the tanning bed and the dresser. Then he went for the gun, and said he was going to shoot me and then himself. I was terrified but I got away! I ran ¼ mile down to the neighbor’s house in my underwear. No shoes, bleeding coming from my head, face, elbows and knees. I was banging on her door to PLEASE HELP!!!!! HE’S GOING TO KILL ME!!!!! She called 911. They came and took him into custody. I got C.J.E. and G.E.E. and stayed with my parents.

The following morning, I filed for divorce and filed for a protection order for myself and my children. I was granted the order August 2015. He was not allowed to have any firearms. My parents were granted permission to come to our home and remove all firearms. The guns were never taken by police. They allowed my parents to take them.

In 2016, he talked me into taking him back and being a family. He said he would change. He was required by Preble County Court to complete a one-year alcohol rehabilitation program. Due to him eventually completing the rehab, he was able to lower his Domestic Violence charge to a Disorderly Conduct. He was allowed to have the guns back once the court process was complete regarding the domestic violence. He begged my parents for them, and my parents gave the guns back in 2017, once he was finished with his court ordered alcohol rehabilitation.

We all hoped he was rehabilitated, but the situation worsened in 2018. I spent almost 4 years trying to protect my children from his abuse. There had been several incidences where he had hurt C.J.E.. I tried since 2018 to get a dissolution without success, so I filed again for divorce in 2020.

But going to court and telling a lawyer did nothing to keep me and my kids safe. I took the initiative to seek out a counselor, so C.J.E. could tell his side of the story to someone other than me, someone who saw what Shane did to him. I asked if the counselor could write a letter, explaining what C.J.E. had told her. She wrote a fantastic letter in great detail and gave it to my lawyer for the case - and it did nothing. I provided photos, medical records from being beaten and taken to the hospital, provided police records…. Nothing seemed to help my case to protect myself and my children. In fact, it seemed all the abuse evidence made it even easier for him to get 50/50 custody.

As far as his guns, the state didn’t hold his Domestic Violence charge, so once I found out in 2019 that he had gotten his concealed carry license despite his history of abuse, I called the Sheriff’s office, but they said there was nothing I could do. My plea for it to be revoked and him not able to even purchase a gun was completely ignored by law enforcement and the courts. I knew me and my children were in grave danger. Yet, no one would help us.

The custody litigation was horrible. Throughout the process, the guardian ad litem recommended shared custody of the children, despite Shane’s abuse. On Oct 4th, 2021, a custody agreement was forced upon me by my attorney. We had a court hearing that ended up being some settlement ordeal which I did not want. My attorney and the paralegal both told me I had to settle with 50/50 because I could lose custody of my children if I kept fighting for their safety and for them to stay with me. So, scared the abuser would take full custody of my children because the courts didn’t care about the abuse and risk, I agreed to a 50/50 arrangement under duress, and within the next 2 days I was emailing them to back out on it because my gut was screaming that it was a bad call. Just months afterwards, in January 2022, he shot my children in their sleep during his 50% custody time.

Abusers should never have access to firearms. There have been too many children dying at the hands of abusers. Mine are two. Too many cases render the same details and patterns.

The abuser sees killing the children as a last resort to control the ex-partner. Their resentment is so great, and with their jealousy they cannot think straight. Honestly, if they hurt the woman who they declare they love, what makes Judges and magistrates think that couldn’t hurt their own children? What is the system missing and why is it so deferential to an abuser’s “rights”? Why can’t they see the obvious signs? Why are the abusers believed before the protective mothers and children? My abuser was all about control - and with guns that is so likely to be lethal. He didn’t love and care for our children. He showed no interest in them until the courts were involved. His main reason for wanting 50/50 with the kids was the control over me and the child support. If he didn’t have the guns and the courts would have protected us, he would not have been able to kill my children.

- K.E.

My name is Leah Moses, I am a mother of two children in Utah who experienced violent coercive control through physical, psychological and sexual abuse by their father, Partha Gandhi, from the time of birth until he shot and killed the oldest child at 16 and himself on May 12, 2023.

Partha began abusing me when we met in 2004, through coercion, isolation and intimidation, quickly compounded by systematic physical and sexual abuse. My children are the result of sexual assault, born in 2006 and 2008. He repeatedly threatened kidnapping, suicide and homicide. In the end he killed my son. In 2009, I filed for divorce and was granted a temporary protective order, including prohibition of firearm ownership. The order was dismissed due to the county court reasoning that I had not made enough police reports and his vehement assertion that he did not own any weapons. I withdrew the divorce petition due to his violent threats to terminate all resources and control child custody. He was a PhD psychologist and would use this to his advantage. By 2011, this became untenable, and I again filed for divorce and a protective order with firearm prohibition. Police physically removed him from our residence, but would not respond when I brought evidence of protective order violations, including his veiled threats to kill me. The courts denied a permanent protective order and I was only granted permission to move counties with the children during divorce proceedings.

Partha continuously denied gun use or ownership to the court, to parent coordinators, family therapists, both custody evaluators and to the guardian ad litem, but maintained a fascination with firearms. He claimed to me and others that he kept a shotgun in his garage, and the children said they saw it. He told me verbally and in writing that he would kill me if I ever told anyone the truth of his violence, or if I tried to take the children away or hide.

The children and I continued to live in poverty, struggling to keep up with the cost of litigation to keep them safe, while he continued stalking me, assaulting me, and attempting to turn law enforcement against me by doing things to undermine my protective actions. For example, when I attempted to get the first protective order, he told law enforcement and courts that we were a "wrestling family" and the reason the kids saw him on top of me pinning me down was a “family tradition.” My reports of him trying to push me out of the car on the freeway or backed up against a wall with him punching the wall next to my head while I held a screaming baby were seen as "he said she said" incidents, simply civil issues without medical injury reports. The temporary order was dismissed as a result.

Later, my daughter disclosed child sexual abuse, which was reported to protective services. After months of investigation by law enforcement, the detective on the case told me Partha had come into her office, threatened her, and demanded she dismiss everything and clear his name. His coercing, threatening, and manipulating never stopped until the 2021 custody evaluation recommendation that both of us refrain from reporting anything to police, and a strong rebuke from the custody evaluator, guardian ad litem, and even the retired judge mediator, that I stop documenting completely any court order violations or concerning behavior.

The court-appointed custody evaluator ignored the children’s reports of verbal and physical violence, neglect, and incest. In 2014, joint custody was recommended despite my warnings to court-appointed officials that he had substantial resources and may have access to firearms. Fearing for my life, I conceded to give up all assets in exchange for a signed decree with protective order language, but I was advised by custody evaluators to omit any language regarding firearms as “unnecessary.”

Attorneys also were extremely hesitant to use any stories of violence without medical exam reports; they left out topics related to violence and focused instead on things like child support calculators.

In 2018, he claimed I was an unfit mother and reopened the custody case, where courts allowed his extensive filings and hearings, and the guardian ad litem ignored my concerns. While he threatened her that she would lose her license, the custody evaluator in 2021 split the children, giving my son to him and my daughter to me. The evaluator indicated multiple times her concern for his increased anger and acting out if she recommended full custody to me. Because Partha was unsatisfied without full control, he then demanded a second written evaluation, since anything less than removing my parental rights was unsatisfactory to him.

He threatened to report each evaluating professional involved who did not immediately align with his exertions of power - reporting to the state department of licensing and to national professional organizations. I don't know how far he got with it all, but he did report the children's therapist, and attempted to report some of their schoolteachers, and most strongly he threatened the custody evaluator such that she was compelled to ask the court in writing for relief from his antagonizing.

In March 2023, with no forewarning and after months of delay, the custody evaluator released her second report which included more evidence of his criminal activity, violent/unstable behavior, substance issues, and finally, she made the recommendation to give me full custody of both children and their choice in parent time. I was shocked she risked this, given his known and constant threats to act in retribution, and I was surprised she released this volume of damning information without any forewarning or safety measures in place for me or the children.

The report was simultaneously sent to him, his temporary attorney, me, my attorney, and the court, while I was in the process of pushing my attorneys to schedule a mediation to change custody - hopeful and planning Om's homecoming and final exit from abuse for his last year of high school, when the report came out. Before I could get a hearing or mediation date, a few weeks later he purchased a handgun at a pawn shop then murdered my son and killed himself.

No abuser should have access to firearms. Victims with serious reports and evidence of violence, especially when child custody is involved, should be heard by court officials and law enforcement, and protected. We cannot possibly be safe when an abuser can easily access firearms.

- Leah Moses