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Issue: Federal law restricting gun ownership for people with restraining orders against them
Text of the law:
“Persons subject to a qualifying protection order under federal law are generally prohibited from possessing any firearm or ammunition in or affecting commerce (or shipping or transporting any firearm or ammunition in interstate or foreign commerce, or receiving any such firearm or ammunition). Violation of this prohibition while the order remains in effect is a federal offense punishable by up to ten years imprisonment. Title 18 U.S.C. §§ 922(g)(8), 924(a)(2).”
From what I can see, this law has been in effect this 2011.
And now, in 2023...
From the Fox News article: Justice Department asks Supreme Court to overturn domestic violence gun ruling (21 March 2023)
“The Department of Justice has filed a petition with the U.S. Supreme Court to seek a review of a lower court decision that struck down a federal law that banned people under domestic violence restraining orders from owning firearms.”
“A three-judge panel of the Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled last month that people under domestic violence restraining orders retain their constitutional right to own firearms, finding that the federal law prohibiting them from doing so was unconstitutional under the Supreme Court's landmark New York State Rifle & Pistol Association Inc. v. Bruen decision.”
The reasoning behind this law was that “there is a legal tradition in the U.S. and England of disarming people who have posed a danger to the community or threatened to hurt others.”
The case that the Supreme Court was asked to review, United States v. Zackey Rahimi, involved a man who was the subject of a civil protective order that banned him from harassing, stalking or threatening his ex-girlfriend and their child. The order also banned him from having guns.
Initially, he lost his case in federal appeals court, which held that it was more important for society to keep guns out of the hands of people accused of domestic violence than it was to protect a person's individual right to own a gun.
However, after the Supreme Court issued its Bruen decision, setting news standards for interpreting the Second Amendment, the appeals court vacated the man's conviction. The court ruled that the federal law that prohibits people with domestic violence restraining orders from possessing firearms was not "consistent with the Nation's historical tradition of firearm regulation."
DOJ contends that the Fifth Circuit erred because it "overlooked the strong historical evidence supporting the general principle that the government may disarm dangerous individuals. The court instead analyzed each historical statute in isolation."
What is a restraining order?
When a person does “something” to another person (again and again and again), a restraining order may be issued against that person. A restraining order basically says that a person cannot to with X feet of another person or persons. Most cases involve a restraining order issued by the woman against a man.
But getting a restraining order does not always include any crime that has actually been committed. If a person did violence against another person, charges would be issued against that person and they would be in jail.
A restraining order is just putting in writing, in an offiical capacity, that person A cannot go with X feet of person B. That is it. As long as person A stays away from person B, there will no longer be any violence. At least, that is the theory.
Generally, the restraining order is usually 100 yards. 100 yards is the size of an official football field playing area. In terms of personal physical attacks, this can solve the problem. But with a gun, 100 yards, clear shot, is no protection.
Are restraining orders effective?
“In a study involving 2,691 women who reported an incident of intimate partner violence to police, Holt et al. found that having a permanent protection order in effect was associated with an 80 percent reduction in police-reported physical violence in the next year.” (Source: https://jaapl.org/content/38/3/376)
17% (roughly 147 of 880) of the orders initiated go unserved and so are not technically enforceable.
Although what was displayed in the official Google summary response is not the whole picture. The actual answer is “The reported rates of protection order violation vary widely across studies, from as low as 7.1 percent to as high as 81.3 percent.”
Some of the problems involve not having a proper control group, and not doing follow-up for a long enough period of time.
What are the types of “domestic abuse” (aka conditions of restraining orders)?
- Contact (even calling somebody on the phone or a text message or an email)
- Threat
- Sustained psychological abuse
- Physical abuse
What did the studies find?
“Women who had less severe prior injuries had a great significant reduction in future violence.”
That is a no brainer observation. Men do not go from “nothing” to beating a woman unconscious. It happens in small steps. Women who are confident in themselves, leave the first time a guy hits them. Maybe, they might follow the “three strikes and you are out” rule. Once the abuse goes beyond that, the guy becomes emboldened and there is “no fixing the guy” (at least in that relationship).
It is also earlier in the relationship, so it is easier for both people to break the emotional bonds of the relationship.
In another study, it was noted that abused women who applied and qualified for a two-year protection order reported significantly lower levels of violence in the subsequent 18 months, regardless of whether the order was implemented.
This again makes sense. A woman who officially files for a restraining order is taking that first step in no longer viewing herself as the helpless victim. She is taking her own life into her own hands.
Cons of restraining orders
In order for a restraining order to be official, the restraining order has to list the addresses of where the restrained person cannot go. That means that the restraining order has to include the work address and home address of the woman being abused.
For “minor things”, just issuing the restraining order is enough.
But in reality, most woman want to get as far away from the guy as possible. That usually results in finding a new job and a new home in another city or even another state. Since the woman is essentially trying to “hide” from the guy, no official restraining order can be issued. And even with a divorce, unless the woman chooses to contest something, it just becomes paperwork that a lawyer files and all contact goes through the lawyer. If neither sides contests anything, essentially “the clock runs out”.
But it goes even further. Women are “told” (advice given by professions in protecting women) to keep off social media, do not use vanity license plates, move to another city or even another state, get a new car, etc. Essentially making it as difficult as possible for the guy to find the woman.