US Cracks Down on Gun Ownership for Abusers
US enacts legislation that forbids persons covered by domestic abuse restraining orders from owning firearms.
US Supreme Court upholds federal law banning individuals under domestic abuse restraining orders from owning firearms, citing long tradition of firearm regulations. Decision ensures survivors of domestic violence and families continue to have critical protections.
“Since the founding, our Nation's firearm laws have included provisions preventing individuals who threaten physical harm to others from misusing firearms. As applied to the facts of this case the current law fits comfortably within this tradition.” Chief Justice John Roberts wrote for the 8-1 majority.
Zacky Rahimi was accused in this case of hitting his girlfriend and shooting a witness at a parking lot in Fort Worth, Texas, in December 2019.
According to the Justice Department, Rahimi's girlfriend filed for a protective order against him in February 2020 after he made threats to shoot her.
A copy of the restraining order and firearms were found in Rahimi's flat when police searched it eleven months later.
Rahimi began the judicial process by entering a guilty plea to breaking the federal gun prohibition, but he claimed the restriction violated his Second Amendment rights.
The 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals, located in New Orleans, overturned a 2023 ruling on Friday, June 21. A three-judge panel concluded that the ban on gun possession under restraining orders did not adhere to the standards established by the Supreme Court's landmark 2022 decision in the New York State Rifle & Pistol Association, which included Bruen.
According to this verdict, gun laws must follow the country's longstanding history of regulating firearms.
The Supreme Court has been actively extending gun rights in recent decades, which raised the possibility—prior to the court's decision on Friday, June 21—that it would overturn restrictions on gun ownership for those who mistreat their spouses and other groups deemed less fortunate, such drug users.
A handgun restriction in the nation's capital was overturned in 2008 when the justices decided in Heller v. District of Columbia that an individual's freedom to own guns is guaranteed by the Second Amendment.
Then, in 2022, the statute requiring a demonstration of special need for a permit in New York was overturned by the Supreme Court's ruling in the Bruen case, which upheld people's freedom to carry guns outside of their houses.
In his opinion, Chief Justice Roberts chastised the 5th Circuit for misapplying the Bruen judgment, insisting that the restraining order law have a historical twin instead of a historical parallel.
“Rather than consider the circumstances in which the law was most likely to be constitutional, the panel instead focused on hypothetical scenarios where the law might raise constitutional concerns.That error left the panel slaying a straw man,” the chief justice wrote.
Justice Clarence Thomas, who had written the opinion in the Bruen case, was the only one to disagree.
“This Court's directive was clear in Bruen. A firearm regulation that falls within the Second Amendment's plain text is unconstitutional unless it is consistent with the Nation's historical tradition of firearm regulation. Not a single historical regulation justifies the statute at issue.” Thomas wrote.
The court's judgment last week to overturn the Trump administration's prohibition on bump stocks—devices that allow semi-automatic guns to shoot more quickly—came just one week after the decision on Friday, June 21.
The judgment on Friday, June 21st, followed the court's decision last week to reverse a Trump-era ban on bump stocks, which are devices that speed up the firing rate of semi-automatic guns.
After considering all relevant facts, the judges concluded that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) had wrongly classified bump stocks as banned machine weapons without the consent of Congress.
On Friday, June 21, President Biden commended the Supreme Court's ruling, adding in a statement, “No one who has been abused should have to worry about their abuser getting a gun.”
“As a result of today's ruling, survivors of domestic violence and their families will still be able to count on critical protections, just as they have for the past three decades.” Biden added.
Hunter, the 54-year-old son of Biden, made an attempt to challenge federal gun charges in Delaware by claiming that the ban on drug addicts owning firearms was unconstitutional.
Tuesday, June 11 was the day of his conviction, and it is probable that he will revisit this issue in the course of an appeal.
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