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Supreme Court Keeps Guns Away from Domestic Violence Abusers

March 26, 2014

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: NNEDV Communications Team (Communications@NNEDV.org)

Washington, DC – “Victims of domestic violence and their advocates are breathing easier today, since the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that convicted domestic violence abusers will be prohibited from possessing firearms,” said Kim Gandy, President & CEO of the National Network to End Domestic Violence (NNEDV), which celebrated today’s significant decision in United States v. Castleman.

“A contrary decision would have eroded the very heart of the long-standing federal protections that prohibit abusers from possessing firearms,” said Gandy. “Frankly, we were terrified that a decision would re-arm thousands of abusers — the very people who are most likely to murder their intimate partners — which would have been tragic beyond measure. We are delighted that the Court upheld this vital law.”

NNEDV submitted an amicus curiae brief, with support from Mintz Levin, outlining the importance of upholding this protection through a common-sense interpretation of the law. NNEDV’s brief was referenced by the Court.

Women in the United States are 11 times more likely to be murdered with a gun than women in other high-income countries. Even more telling, women in the United States are murdered by their husbands and intimate partners with guns at a rate three times higher than women are murdered by strangers using any combination of guns, knives, or other weapons.

Another study shows that homes with guns have a threefold increase in homicide risk as compared to homes without guns, and this risk increases to eightfold when the perpetrator is an intimate partner or relative of the victim.

“Firearms in the hands of abusers play a large role in the lethality of domestic assaults,” said Gandy. “When there has been previous domestic violence, as in the Castleman case, the risk of homicide is 20 times higher. With those odds, giving abusers unfettered access to deadly weapons is gambling with women’s lives.”

  • Read the full opinion from the Supreme Court here.
  • Learn more about gun violence and domestic violence here.

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The National Network to End Domestic Violence (NNEDV) represents the 56 state and U.S. territorial coalitions against domestic violence. NNEDV is a social change organization working to create a social, political, and economic environment in which domestic violence no longer exists. NNEDV works to make domestic violence a national priority, change the way society responds to domestic violence, and strengthen domestic violence advocacy at every level.