In our local news this article caught my attention because of the murder weapons used in this brutal slaying.  This man first attacked his wife with a box cutter then beat her to death with a 25 pound rock.  They were estranged and she had a protective order out against him but had recently started seeing him again. To add insult to injury the suspect had been charged with murder before but got off.   (These details came from another article about this incident)

In the first place I will never understand why a woman would ever consider going back to a man who has attacked her or been violent with her.  However each person has the right to make their own choices regardless of the consequences.

The one thing that the circumstances of this crime makes abundantly clear is that if someone is going to be violent towards another there are always ways to do so.  We are constantly confronted with people who insist that firearms should be banned because they are used to kill people.  I have always argued that you can do a whole lot more damage and kill a lot more people with other things besides guns and that banning them would not necessarily save lives.

If we tried to ban everything that could potentially be used to take someone elses life the list would become impossibly long after awhile.  Even if you just concentrate on those potential weapons that could harm large numbers of people you still have a lot of stuff to remove from society's hands. 

In this case I somehow suspect that the woman in question would certainly not have chosen to be cut up with a box knife and then bludgeoned to death with a rock had she been given a vote in the matter.  I know that I would much rather be shot than stabbed and beaten to death any day.  I prefer it to be quick and with as little pain as possible.

So my question for the Newsvine readers is how could this have been prevented?  Or for that matter would it even be possible to protect someone who seems to not want such protection?  Clearly she chose to re initiate their relationship despite their rocky past.