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October marks the 22nd annual Domestic Violence Awareness Month. As vice-chairs of the Governor's Family Violence Council, we respectfully ask people to consider the fact that domestic abuse is not limited to just one month a year.

Every 1.4 minutes, a woman in the U.S. is victimized by an intimate partner. One in three women — of all religions, races and ages — will experience domestic violence in her lifetime. Seventy-four percent of all murder-suicides involve an intimate partner.

This month marks a milestone for the council. We worked closely with the governor, lieutenant governor and others to ensure passage of two critical bills mandating the surrender of firearms in protective order cases. They were just signed into law.

Our work is important and our goal is to reduce, or, some day, hopefully eliminate, all cases of abuse across our state. Unfortunately, come Nov. 1, abuse isn't going to magically stop. We ask that everyone educate themselves about the warning signs, talk with local domestic violence agencies, and then do something about it.

Cheryl Kravitz, Silver Spring

Jodi Finkelstein, Olney

The writers are vice-chairwomen of the

Governor's Family Violence Council.