The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals declared
earlier this month that even when a person has a demonstrated history of
violent abuse of their romantic partners or the partners’ children, and even
when a court has determined that the person is “a credible threat to the
physical safety of such intimate partner or child,” that abuser has a Second
Amendment right to possess as many guns as he wants. Laws restricting such
possession exist in many states, backed up by the federal statute that the
court struck down.
People will certainly die as a result of this ruling. Nearly half of female
homicide victims are killed by intimate partners, usually with a gun. The
restrictions now struck down have been found to reduce such homicides by as
much as 25 per cent. Domestic abusers are also likely to kill police officers.
Moreover, most perpetrators of mass shootings have a history of domestic
violence.
But don’t blame the judges of the Fifth Circuit, which is notorious for
conservative activism. It faithfully applied the (not-really-originalist) rules
that the Supreme Court laid down last June in New York State Rifle & Pistol
Association, Inc. v. Bruen.
I explain in a new piece at The American Prospect, here.
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