A 62-year-old Freeport woman, Mary Jo Kornick, lost her life this past weekend after a man — whom she sought protection from — shot and killed her.

While the story is a horrific one, it is also unfortunately not an uncommon one.

According to the Pennsylvania Coalition Against Domestic Violence (PCADV), more than 10 million people are abused in the United States annually. One in four women and one in seven men experience “severe physical violence” by a partner.

A 2017 study by PCADV found that 2,486 domestic violence victims were assisted during one day in Pennsylvania that year. A total of 122 victims died in the state last year from domestic violence incidents, and 68 percent of them were killed by a current or former partner.

The coalition notes that one of the most prevalent type of incidents were murder-suicides, similar to the incident that claimed Kornick’s life. PCADV found that murder-suicides carried out by men with firearms were a rising trend nationally and in Pennsylvania.

Kornick left her job at an assisted living home Saturday and was followed by her estranged boyfriend, Nicholas Domek III, 72.

Five months ago, Kornick obtained a protection from abuse (PFA) order against Domek after he held a gun to her head. He was charged with felony kidnapping and stalking and released on bail.

On Saturday, Kornick crashed her car while trying to escape Domek on Route 356. Moments after the crash, Domek drove up next to Kornick’s car and fatally shot her before fleeing. He was later discovered dead in a Hazelwood cemetery with a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Last year saw the passage of state House Bill 2060, which was designed to strengthen the Protection from Abuse Act by speeding up the amount of time people have to turn over guns after being convicted of a domestic violence crime or had a PFA order approved against them. This was a good start.

According to a January article in the York Daily Record, a total of 47,861 new temporary PFA orders were processed in 2018. This number was 8,700 higher than the previous year. Butler County ranked 26th among all 67 state counties for PFAs, with a total of 384 filed.

Domek’s son told the Butler Eagle Monday that his father was a veteran with a history of mental illness. He should not have been armed and able to get within close proximity to Kornick.

The state has taken some steps to prevent scenarios like this one from occurring. It needs to do more.