U.S. v. Rahimi goes before the Supreme Court on Tuesday, November 7, 2023.
Here’s why this matters:
“SCOTUS will decide if a federal law prohibiting possession of firearms by people subject to domestic violence protection orders is Constitutional — in other words, if an abuser who has a protection order or restraining order against them can legally keep their guns. The stakes are high. If the Supreme Court overturns this law, it would likely increase domestic gun violence and put lives — especially the lives of women — at risk.” — — Kelly Roskam, JD, Director of law and policy at the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Solutions
The Problem and the Solution:
Cultural perpetuation of misogyny leads to Domestic Violence → Ignored Domestic Violence leads to Gun Violence/Mass Shootings.
"If we simply kept guns away from domestic violence offenders we could potentially stop 60%+ of mass shootings, 30% of child firearm deaths, 50% of IPV murders of women, 65% IPV murders of Black women and 75% of IPV murders of Indigenous women." - Jon Stewart
When our culture and legal systems silence victim- survivors of domestic violence or disbelieves them, or ignores substantial evidence of abuse (intimate partner violence, post-separation abuse/coercive control) as it’s presented via our legal system, instead of stopping the violence by holding perpetrators accountable the first time, you enable it and embolden perpetrators, then you put everyone in our communities at risk, and then society still blames women when they escalate. The same women who tried to warn you and stop the violence in the first place.
The Facts:
“The intersection of gun violence in our culture and domestic violence was shocking. ― If we just enforced the laws on domestic violence we could really have an impact on gun violence as well.” — Jon Stewart
“The connection between domestic violence and gun violence is undeniable and made all the more deadly because of this country’s extraordinarily lax gun laws,” Shannon Watts founder of Moms Demand Action, told VICE News last year, after a man shot and killed seven people, including himself and his girlfriend, in Colorado Springs, Colorado. “From closing the dating partner and background check loopholes to enacting red flag laws, we need federal action to protect women and end this gun violence epidemic that kills 100 people every day and wounds hundreds more.”
“Mass shootings in the United States tend to share two characteristics: They are committed using assault weapons, and they are committed by men with a past of domestic violence and a poisonous relationship toward women.” — VICE News
“A link to domestic violence is all too common in mass shootings, as copious research has uncovered. An Educational Fund to Stop Gun Violence study published last year found that, in nearly 70 percent of mass shootings analyzed by researchers, the perpetrator either killed family members or partners, or had a history of domestic violence. Children are particularly at risk: Out of the 362 children and teens killed in mass shootings between 2009 and 2020, 72 percent died in domestic violence-related attacks, Everytown for Gun Safety found in a 2021 report.”