Law could take guns from family violence suspects

By JOHN MUNFORD
jmunford@TheCitizenNews.com

A newly discovered federal law could lead to taking guns out of the hands of local family violence offenders.

The law was discovered by officials as they conducted a review of the events that led up to the shooting death of a Tyrone woman at the hands of her estranged husband at a Fayetteville dentist’s office April 29.

Flossie “Flo” Cooper Tyson, 54, died after she was shot several times by Sammy L. Tyson, 65, while she was a patient at Family Dental Care at 270 Ga. Highway 314, police said. Sammy Tyson then shot and killed himself, police said.

Bonnie Campbell, the outgoing executive director of the Fayette County Council on Domestic Violence, said the federal law uncovered by officials requires persons who have special protective orders lodged against them to relinquish their firearms for one year.

“Would it have helped in Flo’s case? I don’t know,” Campbell said. She noted that Mr. Tyson was given back several of his firearms about a week before he killed her.

Mrs. Tyson had fled to live with relatives in Jacksonville, Fla. but she returned to Fayetteville for a dentist appointment, Campbell added.

Fayette County District Attorney Bill McBroom said it might be better to have firearms seized as a condition ordered by local judges instead of using federal laws which might not be enforced by federal authorities.

Another problem uncovered in the review of the murder case was that there was no evidence of the temporary protective order against Mr. Tyson when his criminal history was run, Campbell said. That was because the protective language from the temporary order was removed by attorneys when they filed the civil divorce order, she said.

“There are folks who are going to find a way around it and do what they want to do,” Campbell said.

Authorities have also learned that there needs to be a better system to insure those who have protective orders filed against them participate in a 24-week family violence intervention program as required by a new Georgia law, Campbell said.