Sometimes the people we love can be the most harmful to our wellbeing. Congresswoman Gwen Moore (D-Wis.), unfortunately, knows that as a fact.

When she was in her early 20s, her boyfriend held her at gunpoint. In the past, he has controlled her finances, beaten her up and forced her into the hospital at one point. The relationship came to a breaking point when the gun came into the scene.

Moore and Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) introduced the Domestic Violence Homicide Prevention Act of 2017 earlier last week that would give states funds to keep firearms out of the hands of abusers, per The Huffington Post. At this moment, 22 states are unable to enforce identified domestic abusers from buying and owning guns. The bill will hopefully influence states to adopt federal domestic violence gun prohibitions.

“The link between domestic violence and guns is well-documented and deadly,” Blumenthal told HuffPost in a statement. “Continued congressional complicity in this matter is unacceptable.”

Data on the topic of domestic violence show that women are killed every 16 hours by an armed partner.

“When women leave, they need somewhere to stay, they need child care, they need their locks changed and they need law enforcement to step in and take the guns,” Moore said. “Why would anyone try to leave if there are no guardrails to protect them?”

However, there is some hope. Annals of Internal Medicine and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released recent studies that show that homicides went down 14 percent in states that required abusers subject to protection orders to hand over guns.

Rep. Gwen Moore

Get relevant content delivered to you once a week