Domestic violence was permitted by the country’s legal system throughout a sizable portion of its history. Domestic abuse was rarely criminalised by law, and execution of the few prohibitions that did exist was infrequent.
Domestic abuse has always been illegal, but it has only recently been more common and strictly enforced. Due to the country’s past practice of turning a blind eye to domestic violence, the U.S. is currently in danger of abandoning that legal foundation.
On November 10, 2022, a federal judge in the Western District of Texas overturned the ban on access to firearms for those covered by orders of protection against domestic abuse. He did this in accordance with a 2022 U.S. Supreme Court decision, NYSRPA v. Bruen, which stated that for a handgun restriction to be constitutional, it must be comparable to rules that were in place at the time the nation was created. In other words, because these rules weren’t in place when the nation was founded, disarming domestic abusers is illegal under the Second Amendment.
The 5th Circuit Court has since heard an appeal of the decision. The appeal’s outcome is not guaranteed in any way.
We examine the relationship between gun laws with domestic violence in the U.S., and we are aware that reversing laws that forbid domestic violence offenders from obtaining firearms will endanger lives; research has repeatedly demonstrated this.
Endangering people’s lives
Currently, federal law forbids anyone who is subject to final domestic violence protection orders—as opposed to interim ones—from acquiring or owning weapons. Additionally, similar laws are prohibited in 39 states and the District of Columbia, with several of them extending the bans to cover anyone who are subject to temporary or ex parte orders before a complete hearing.
By declaring these laws invalid, mostly women and children will be put in danger.
Intimate partners typically murder women, and most of these homicides involve firearms. According to a 2003 study, the likelihood of an intimate partner being murdered increases by 400% when an abusive guy has access to a gun.
The majority of people slain by an intimate partner are women, and over one-third of children under the age of 13 who are shot dead do so because of domestic abuse.
68% of mass shooters either killed an intimate partner during the shooting or had a history of domestic violence.
There is a need for more research to determine how consistently gun restrictions are implemented and if people who are subject to them give up whatever firearms they already own. However, evidence suggests that limiting access to firearms in domestic violence protection orders really saves lives. Numerous research comes to the conclusion that these laws contribute to an 8%–10% decrease in homicides involving intimate partners.
In particular, when the firearm prohibition applies to both dating partners and people under temporary restrictions, there are statistically substantial drops in intimate partner homicide. The claim that abusers will use other weapons to kill is refuted by the decline in intimate partner homicide overall, not just homicides committed with firearms.
Additionally, these regulations are widely supported across the nation —
The percentage of participants in two nationwide surveys conducted in 2017 and 2019 stated they supported them.
Americans generally concur that domestic abusers shouldn’t be able to purchase or possess firearms while they are covered by a domestic violence protection order, regardless of whether they are male or female, gun owners or non-owners. Most people appear to understand that these reasonable restrictions are necessary to protect families and communities.
A disregard for data
Instead of using the facts, the Texas decision was predicated on an originalist legal theory. According to the judge’s reading of the Bruen ruling, it is not constitutional to restrict domestic abusers’ access to firearms today since colonial law, which was enacted before women had the right to vote and were not intended to protect them from violent partners, did not do so. If the decision is upheld, the United States will effectively be unable to reverse its longstanding legal tolerance of domestic violence.
It also ignores the damage that enabling domestic abusers to possess firearms causes. Numerous studies show that domestic violence gun control laws are successful and save lives.
According to this research, individuals who experience abuse at the hands of an intimate partner are more likely to experience lethal abuse, should the Texas ruling stand.
