Groups say W.Va. a mixed bag on domestic violence gun laws

Gunar Christensen later locked himself in a closet in the master bedroom and shot himself in the chest with a 12-gauge shotgun. Eighteen died in 2014. The gun used was owned by the woman, who purchased it months before for self-defense.

An estimated 184 people in MI were victims of domestic gun homicide from 2006 to 2014, according to an analysis of Federal Bureau of Investigation data by The Associated Press.

Minnesota is part of an early wave of states passing laws to keep guns out of the hands of domestic abusers.

Federal law already bans domestic violence offenders from possessing a gun.

But unlike 15 states with similar laws, Virginia’s bill doesn’t explicitly require abusers to surrender their guns or establish a process to ensure that occurs, said Jonas Oransky, an attorney with Everytown for Gun Safety.

Lawmakers and governors of both parties have supported bills stripping gun rights from those convicted of domestic violence-related crimes or who are subject to protective orders.

The bill would require courts to order people convicted of a domestic related crime punishable as a misdemeanor to transfer all firearms in his or her possession to a federally licensed firearms dealer. Pete Campos, a Las Vegas Democrat, would have prohibited New Mexicans with misdemeanor domestic violence convictions from possessing firearms. Fewer states let law enforcement take guns subject to protective orders, according to the Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence. The bill called for a court hearing and specific evidence before a weapon could be removed. But she said the state could do more. But those same individuals can still own and buy rifles or other firearms in MI, and people who sexually abused strangers don’t lose firearm rights, Zeoli said.

“Of course we want to make sure that if truly unsafe people who have been committing violent crime in the past, that’s something where we’d want to look at having restrictions in place”, he said. You take the person out of the house and take them to jail.

“Innocent until proven guilty is a strong priority in Kansas”, he said.

“We can’t tell how well the law is working if we can’t tell how judges are using their discretion”, Barber said. The NRA stayed neutral after negotiating language that allows individuals to seek the return of their weapons once restraining orders are lifted. That number is likely low because not all law enforcement departments report such information and the numbers do not include children or other bystanders killed by domestic violence. “That would do a heck of a lot more to protect these women”.

The AP summarized data from FBI’s Supplementary Homicide Reports for 2006-2014. The total SHR dataset includes more than 122,000 homicides over a nine-year period.