The US supreme court will hear oral arguments on Tuesday in a case which gun and domestic violence prevention groups are warning could be a matter of life and death for thousands of abuse victims and their families.
Tuesday’s hearing on United States v Rahimi is seen as one of the most consequential cases with which the nine justices will grapple this term. At stake is how far the new hard-right supermajority of the court will go in unraveling the US’s already lax gun laws, even as the country reels from a spate of devastating mass shootings.
Also at stake, say experts, are the lives of thousands of Americans, overwhelmingly women, threatened with gun violence at the hands of their current or former intimate partners.
This is on law this is often used against law abiding gun owners. Their marriage is going south and suddenly they are hit by a restraining order. Some cases there is domestic violence going on, but others the spouse is just trying to make their ex’s life bad. Many gun owners have been hit with this and lot their ability to do the legal things they would do with guns even though they weren’t going to harm their ex.
That isn’t to say that everyone hit by a restraining order won’t harm their ex. Only that there are a number of cases where there is no evidence of harm or harm planned but someone lost their guns. (Yes I’m aware that we only get one side of this story and don’t know the truth, but it happens enough that gun owners are worried it could happen to them)
Getting a domestic abuse restraining order requires a court hearing. Spouses “just trying to make their ex’s life bad” don’t have the ability to unilaterally take away their spouse’s firearms. For a fraction of accusations, maybe there is an unjustified restaining order issued, but there is still due process and reasonable expectations that the system will protrct more people than it harms.
There is a court order, but that is very different from a full investigation. Often they hearing is fast and the accused isn’t even in court to defend himself. That is it is not in any way a fair or unbiased trial.
True, but the complainant still has to deonstrate a need for the order, and there is also an appeals process, and orders issued prior to a hearing are always going to be temporary. If there is nothing to the complaint, the order is lifted and the ex can get on with their life. A fraudulent complaint is a criminal offense. The temporary inconvenience of not being able to purchase a firearm or go within 300 feet of your ex is a minimal hardship when compared against the lives of victims of abuse. There’s no appeals process for being shot by your abuser.
Also guns are expensive, so it’s extra salt in the wound when you try to get them back and the cops say “oops we lost them” (i.e. they walked off into a buddy’s trunk), or even if you do get them back, they’ve been stored in poor conditions and are rusted or otherwise damaged.
That said, they should still be removed if there is a credible threat of violence.
