Gun Law Trendwatch: Protecting Domestic Violence Survivors from Gun Violence
States are introducing and passing crucial gun safety bills that would disarm domestic abusers.
By now, it’s common knowledge that firearms pose a terrifying danger for victims of domestic violence.
When an abusive partner has access to a gun, a domestic violence victim is five times more likely to be killed. That’s why over a dozen states are considering bills to address the threat of guns in the hands of domestic abusers.
Source
Federal Bureau of Investigation, Uniform Crime Reporting Program: Supplementary Homicide Reports (SHR), 2014–2018.
Federal law on this issue has several notable gaps, with 2022’s Bipartisan Safer Communities Act providing only a partial solution. State laws also vary dramatically, with each state having its own procedures to address the threat of armed domestic violence.
Our country’s patchwork of laws makes this a difficult issue to solve. State legislators seeking to address this issue must carefully parse the particular gaps in their state laws and work closely with domestic violence advocates and survivors to ensure that all families are protected. In particular, policymakers must ensure that courts, law enforcement, survivors, and advocates in every community work together in cases of domestic violence to ensure that abusers who lose their ability to legally own a gun turn over guns they already own.
But many state legislators have taken on this difficult task and are achieving remarkable results.
The most definitive win on domestic violence gun laws so far this year was when Illinois Governor Pritzker signed Karina’s Law (HB 4144) on February 10. This bill, which will go into effect in May, is named for Karina Gonzalez, who—along with her 15-year-old daughter—died because her abusive husband, who she already had a protective order against, had access to a gun.
Illinois’s new law requires the immediate surrender of guns when a protective order is issued. If an abuser owns firearms that are not present in the location where the order is served, they will now have 24 hours to surrender their guns. Law enforcement will also be able to obtain a search warrant that they can execute at the same time they serve the order.
A similar bill, HB 2512/SB1414, has been introduced in Arizona. It, too, is named after a victim whose life was needlessly lost to an abuser who shouldn’t have had a gun: Jordin Miranda Castillo, who was murdered by the father of her child. Jordin had an active protective order against the father, but he still managed to access the gun he used to kill her and seriously injure two other people.
In Maryland, two bills (HB 1050 and SB 943) would ensure that all abusers subject to domestic violence protective orders would be prohibited from possessing firearms and would create procedures to ensure that abusers’ firearms were actually surrendered or seized by law enforcement. These bills have received hearings, but their respective committees must decide soon whether they will continue on to a vote of the full chamber.
The danger firearms pose in the hands of abusers is generating efforts even in red states. On February 24, the North Dakota House of Representatives passed HB 1489, a bill that would create strong protective order procedures. Among other things, these procedures would expand the authority of courts to order domestic violence abusers to relinquish firearms.
Even states that have worked on this issue for years must continue fighting for laws that protect domestic abuse victims and survivors. California legislators are considering AB 451, which would require all state law enforcement agencies to establish standardized protocols for the timely service and enforcement of restraining orders that limit firearm access.
Racial disparities in domestic violence
Source
Federal Bureau of Investigation, Uniform Crime Reporting Program: Supplementary Homicide Reports (SHR), 2014–18.
This bill would build off the efforts of that state over the last several years to improve the implementation of its robust array of protective orders with firearm prohibitions. These efforts have increased rates of voluntary firearm relinquishment and decreased the delay between when a protective order is issued and the person subject to that order relinquishes their firearms. There is still major room for improvement though, especially in regions where law enforcement agencies have not prioritized this issue.
Similarly, in New Jersey, lawmakers are building off existing laws by recognizing the need to keep dangerous innovations in gun technology away from domestic abusers. AB 1389, which passed out of a committee on February 20, would extend the state’s laws regarding the removal of guns from abusers to ammunition and firearm components and accessories.
There are concerns, however, that bills like these may fall victim to partisan politics. In Virginia, four bills to strengthen protections against armed domestic abuse have passed both chambers of the Democrat-controlled legislature and are on Republican Governor Youngkin’s desk.
HB 1869 and SB 883 would prohibit possession of a firearm after a conviction for misdemeanor assault and battery against an intimate partner. HB 1960 and SB 744, like many of the other bills mentioned above, would strengthen procedures to ensure that domestic abusers subject to protective orders turn over their firearms. Governor Youngkin has vetoed similar bills in the past.
Additional bills addressing guns in the hands of abusers have been introduced in:
- Georgia (HB 452 and SB 66)
- Illinois (HB 18)
- Indiana (SB 470)
- Kentucky (HB 330)
- Minnesota (HB 391, SB 784)
- Missouri (HB 904, SB 91, SB 328)
- New York (AB 544)
- Ohio (SB 908)
- Oklahoma (HB 1072)
- Texas (HB 396, HB 498, HB 711, HB 857, HB 956, HB 2629, HB 2650)
- Vermont (HB 221)
It’s essential that state lawmakers continue to step up and pass strong, lifesaving gun violence prevention laws. Protecting domestic violence survivors shouldn’t be a partisan political issue—women and children are dying every day. It’s just common sense to do all we can to protect our fellow Americans. States must prioritize doing so.
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