Policies to Prevent Domestic Violence Homicides

Every day in the United States, women are killed or severely injured due to the lethal combination of domestic violence abusers and guns.

From 2002 through 2011, an average of 3,551 women were killed every year in the United States. Nearly one-third of all women murdered in the United States are murdered by a current or former intimate partner. The homicide risk for homes with guns is three times that in homes without guns.

When abusers have access to firearms, not only women’s safety, but also their very lives, are in danger.

Policy Solutions

Currently, federal legislation prohibits those who have been convicted of domestic violence and those subject to a final domestic violence restraining order from purchasing or possessing firearms. The United States Supreme Court upheld these protections in 2024 in U.S. v. Rahimi.

In 2022, the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act partially closed the federal “dating partner loophole” or “boyfriend loophole” by extending firearm restrictions to dating partners convicted of misdemeanor crimes of domestic violence. While the law did not fully close the loophole, it is a first step in enacting gun safety laws at the federal level in decades and provides life-saving protections for some survivors.

Firearms must also be removed from abusers at the time temporary protection orders are granted, and abusers should be prohibited from possessing or purchasing guns for the duration of the temporary order, because abusers often choose to escalate controlling, violent behavior when victims take those first steps toward leaving and ending the abusive relationship.

Additionally, background checks are the most effective, systematic way to prevent domestic violence offenders from purchasing firearms. Since its creation in 1998, the National Instant Background Check System (NICS) has successfully resolved over 90% of checks instantaneously and effectively blocked more than two million gun purchases by prohibited buyers. However, inconsistent and delayed entry of data into the NICS system too often means that abusers may still be able to purchase firearms because they are not designated by NICS as prohibited purchasers. Legislation should incentivize states to provide prompt and complete entry of civil and criminal prohibited purchaser data into NICS.

The background check system must also be expanded to close the “private sale loophole” that permits even prohibited purchasers to avoid background checks entirely by buying guns from unlicensed private sellers, often at gun shows or through online transactions. Federal legislation is needed to close this dangerous loophole and to keep guns out of the hands of those who would murder their intimate partners.