Opinion: My cousin was killed at an Ames church. I'm pleading to change a failed system.
On May 26, 2022, Eden Montang posted a message to her Instagram about abusive relationships — one of many. Exactly a week later, she was dead, along with my cousin, Vivian Flores.
On June 2, 2022, a Thursday, a man waited in the parking lot of Cornerstone Church in Ames, where Eden arrived to attend Salt Company, a college ministry program. My twin cousins, Vivian and Valarie Flores, were with her. The man, a member of the Iowa National Guard, armed with a 9mm Smith & Wesson pistol, opened fire. After killing Eden, Vivian, and then himself, Valarie was the only one to come out alive.
As Iowa State University professor Leana Bouffard pointed out in the Des Moines Register last year: “Homicide is an extreme of abusive relationships, and when the worst happens, observers may be tempted to ask: Why didn’t she report it before it got to this point? Why didn’t she leave or leave sooner? Why didn’t she protect herself? Decades of research on intimate partner violence and intimate homicide have given us some answers, and unfortunately the main answer is that it’s just not that simple.”
Where the system fails
When we talk about red flag laws — or “extreme risk” laws — what do we mean? By definition, red flag laws allow a judge to temporarily remove a person’s access to guns when there is evidence that they pose a serious risk. Eden herself posted earlier in the year: “Unsolicited Relationship Advice: Stop treating red flags as challenges instead of warning signs.”
On May 31, two days before the shootings, this man was arrested by the Ames Police Department and charged with harassment in the third degree and impersonating a public official (incessant unwanted calls to her work pretending to be a cop) for his harassment of Eden. Yet, he walked out of Boone County Jail on bond, and was able to purchase ammunition on June 2, hours before heading to Cornerstone to commit this atrocity, undetected. Why?
Iowa does not have: background checks, concealed carry laws, prohibitions on stalkers, or a number of other laws that would flag the fact that a man with a documented history of domestic violence can move freely through the system.
He was scheduled to go to trial in July 2022 on an assault charge after allegedly putting his hand down a woman’s pants — twice — at a nightclub in Cedar Falls, in 2021. As reported by the Courier, as part of this arrest, the court entered a restraining order barring him from contacting the victim, but the order didn’t prohibit him from possessing firearms.
In 2017, a different woman — also the mother of his child — petitioned for a restraining order against him after he allegedly grabbed her throat and threatened to murder her.
Court records also show a child support action against him.
Detectives also found an AR-15 rifle at his home.
A plea to Iowans
I’m proposing to you, Iowa citizens, to consider an important question as you examine your beliefs around gun policy, and to put yourselves in the shoes of the people surrounding this situation. Should a man like this be allowed access to a firearm, to ammo? If your answer is no, then please, take the action to change things, before it happens to you. We need judges who can say, "This person’s extensive history of abuse indicates a high risk of violence"; "This person, who has just been arrested for harassment, should have their firearms confiscated, and should not be able to purchase more guns, or ammo."
My cousins had celebrated their 21st birthday only three days before this, and now Valarie has to go through life without her lifelong soulmate. The vivacious “Viv,” who lit up the room with her smile, her laugh, her dance moves. She wanted to be a veterinarian and loved cows in particular. The last time I was with her, in December 2021, we did all those things in our hometown of El Paso, Texas, laughing while we line danced and made tamales with the whole family during Christmas. If I knew it’d be the last time, I would have hugged her even tighter.
The horror of gun violence permeates daily life in the United States. It took the lives of three of your own — at a church, where most would view as the safest place one can be. Good people with guns were around. But it takes just one bad person with a gun to bring tragedy. Cornerstone happened just weeks after the mass shootings in Uvalde, Texas, and Buffalo, New York. These scenes unfold on our screens so regularly that we think, how horrible — and yet, grateful they have nothing to do with us.
Now that it has for my family, I pray that a gun never touches yours, that you never get the messages and calls that a family member or friend has been taken by gun violence. But beyond your prayers, take action. Iowa has very few remaining gun violence prevention laws. Have tough conversations. Take a stand. Get educated. Be convicted in what's right.
The Safer Communities Act was signed, but there is more work to do
On June 25, 2022, a few weeks after Cornerstone, President Joe Biden signed the Safer Communities Act, a bipartisan gun safety bill which closed what was known as the “boyfriend loophole” on a national level — a loophole within a federal law that had prohibited those convicted of misdemeanor domestic violence or who are subject to a protective order from owning or purchasing guns. The loophole refers to the ban applying only to spouses, those who share a child, or co-habitants — not dating partners. In Iowa, however, several gaps remain.
On National Gun Violence Awareness Day and Wear Orange Weekend, please remember and honor Vivian and Eden. Remember to hold our leaders accountable for this very avoidable tragedy, and remember them when you go to the polls next year.
Sarah Arvizo's cousin, Vivian Flores, was killed in the Cornerstone Church shooting. She is a public relations professional living in New York and is from El Paso, Texas.
More information
On Sunday, June 4, Cornerstone Church planned a special service in remembrance of Eden Montang and Vivian Flores. https://cornerstonelife.com/
Vivian’s family has set up the Vivian Flores Scholarship Fund, which will award annual scholarships for students entering the veterinary program at Iowa State University. Donate here.
This article originally appeared on Ames Tribune: Opinion: 1 year after Ames church shootings, a plea for change
