{"id":89904,"date":"2023-02-08T17:15:49","date_gmt":"2023-02-08T23:15:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/?p=89904"},"modified":"2023-02-08T17:15:49","modified_gmt":"2023-02-08T23:15:49","slug":"89904","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/?p=89904","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"

Horrified That the Bruen Decision Protects Gun Rights, Academics Try Throwing Research Data and Statistics At It<\/a><\/p>\n

A judge in Texas is using a recent Supreme Court ruling to allow domestic abusers to keep their\u00a0guns<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

April M. Zeoli<\/a>,\u00a0University of Michigan<\/a><\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0Shannon Frattaroli<\/a>,\u00a0Johns Hopkins University<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

For a large part of the history of the United States,\u00a0domestic abuse was tolerated<\/a>\u00a0under the nation\u2019s legal system. There were few laws\u00a0criminalizing<\/a>\u00a0domestic violence<\/a>, and enforcement of the existing laws was rare.<\/p>\n

It was only in the\u00a0past few decades<\/a>\u00a0that laws criminalizing domestic violence came to be widespread and enforced. But now, the U.S. is in danger of backtracking on that legal framework precisely because of the\u00a0nation\u2019s historical legacy<\/a> of turning a blind eye to domestic violence.<\/p>\n

On Nov. 10, 2022, a\u00a0judge in the Western District of Texas<\/a>\u00a0struck down the federal law that prohibits access to guns for people subject to domestic violence protection orders. He did this based on a 2022 U.S. Supreme Court ruling,\u00a0NYSRPA v. Bruen<\/a>, which held that, to be constitutional, a firearm restriction must be analogous to laws that were in existence when the country was founded. In other words, disarming domestic abusers violates the Second Amendment because those types of laws didn\u2019t exist at the founding of the country.<\/p>\n

In a separate, but related, case, the 5th U.S. Circuit of Court of Appeals on Feb 1. sided with the Texas judge, ruling that the\u00a0federal ban was unconstitutional<\/a>. The Justice Department has indicated that it will appeal.<\/p>\n

We\u00a0study the link between gun laws<\/a>\u00a0and domestic violence in the U.S.<\/a>\u00a0and know that backtracking on laws that prevent the perpetrators of domestic violence from getting their hands on guns will put lives at risk \u2013 the\u00a0research\u00a0<\/a>has proved this time and time again.<\/p>\n

Putting lives in danger<\/strong><\/h3>\n

At present,\u00a0federal law<\/a>\u00a0prohibits persons subject to final \u2013 rather than temporary \u2013 domestic violence protection orders from purchasing or possessing firearms. In addition, 39 states and the District of Columbia have similar prohibitions on their statutes, with many expanding the restrictions to include individuals under temporary, or\u00a0ex parte<\/em>, orders prior to a full hearing.<\/p>\n

Ruling that these laws are unconstitutional will put mainly women and children in danger.\u00a0More than 50%<\/a>\u00a0of women who are murdered are killed by intimate partners, and\u00a0most of those homicides<\/a>\u00a0are committed with guns. A 2003 study found that when an abusive man has access to a gun, it\u00a0increases the risk<\/a>\u00a0of intimate partner homicide by 400%.<\/p>\n

Women constitute the\u00a0majority of victims<\/a>\u00a0of intimate partner homicide, and almost\u00a0one-third of children under the age of 13<\/a>\u00a0who are murdered with a gun\u00a0are killed in the context of domestic violence.<\/p>\n

Moreover,\u00a068% of mass shooters<\/a>\u00a0have a history of domestic violence or killed an intimate partner in the mass shooting.<\/p>\n

Enforcement of\u00a0gun restrictions is spotty<\/a>, with further research needed as to how systematically they are ordered and whether restricted individuals relinquish firearms they already possess. Nonetheless, research shows that firearm restrictions on domestic violence protection orders save lives.\u00a0Multiple studies<\/a>\u00a0conclude that these laws are associated with an\u00a08%-10% reduction<\/a>\u00a0in intimate partner homicide.<\/p>\n

Specifically, there are\u00a0statistically significant reductions<\/a>\u00a0in intimate partner homicide when the firearm restriction covers both dating partners and those subjected to temporary orders. This decrease is seen in total intimate partner homicide, not just intimate partner homicide committed with guns, nullifying the argument that abusers will use other weapons to kill.<\/p>\n

Moreover, these laws have broad support across the country \u2013\u00a0more than 80%<\/a>\u00a0of respondents to two national polls in 2017 and 2019 said they favor them.<\/p>\n

Americans \u2013 whether male or female, gun\u00a0owner or non-gun\u00a0owner \u2013 tend to agree that domestic abusers should not be able to purchase or possess firearms while they are subject to a domestic violence protection order. Most seem to realize that such reasonable restrictions serve the greater good of keeping families and communities safe.<\/p>\n

A disregard for data<\/strong><\/h3>\n

The ruling in Texas was based on an originalist legal argument rather than the data. Under the judge\u2019s interpretation of the Bruen decision, because colonial law \u2013 written before a time when women could vote, let alone be protected in law from violent spouses \u2013 didn\u2019t restrict domestic abusers\u2019 gun\u00a0rights, then it simply isn\u2019t constitutional to do so now. In effect, the ruling, should it stand, would mean the U.S. is unable to escape the nation\u2019s\u00a0historic legal disregard for domestic violence<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It also disregards the harm that allowing domestic abusers to keep hold of guns does. Multiple studies demonstrate that domestic violence firearm restriction laws are\u00a0effective\u00a0<\/a>and\u00a0save<\/a>\u00a0lives<\/a>.<\/p>\n

That research shows that, should the Texas ruling stand, people who suffer abuse at the hands of an intimate partner are at greater risk of that abuse being deadly.<\/p>\n

Lisa Geller<\/a>, director of state affairs at the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun\u00a0Violence Solutions at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, contributed to this article.<\/em>\"The<\/p>\n

April M. Zeoli<\/a>, Associate Professor of Public Health,\u00a0University of Michigan<\/a><\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0Shannon Frattaroli<\/a>, Professor of Health Policy and Management,\u00a0Johns Hopkins University<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

This article is republished from\u00a0The Conversation<\/a>\u00a0under a Creative Commons license. Read the\u00a0original article<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Horrified That the Bruen Decision Protects Gun Rights, Academics Try Throwing Research Data and Statistics At It A judge in Texas is using a recent Supreme Court ruling to allow domestic abusers to keep their\u00a0guns April M. Zeoli,\u00a0University of Michigan\u00a0and\u00a0Shannon Frattaroli,\u00a0Johns Hopkins University For a large part of the history of the United States,\u00a0domestic abuse … Continue reading “”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-89904","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-crap-for-brains","category-mendacity"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89904","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=89904"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89904\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":89905,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89904\/revisions\/89905"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=89904"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=89904"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=89904"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}