Representative Heather Wilson: “Peggy Klinke was a constituent of mine from Albuquerque, New Mexico. She was murdered in January of this year by a…”

“Peggy Klinke was a constituent of mine from Albuquerque, New Mexico. She was murdered in January of this year by a former boyfriend who was obsessed with her and stalked her for almost 2 years. Today I will be introducing a resolution to this House to bring greater awareness of the problem of stalking in America and the things that we need to do to protect its victims. More than 1 million women a year and almost 400,000 men are stalked annually. Those numbers are staggering. One in 12 women and one in 45 men in their lifetime will be stalked. Yet the problem continues to go mostly unrecognized and not responded to properly. The bill that I am introducing would make January Stalking Awareness Month in honor of Peggy in the month that she died. The first step in addressing any problem is to understand that problem and make sure that other people do, because until people understand it, you cannot mobilize the will for change. We need model laws and to make sure those model laws are implemented in every State in this country.”