Supreme Court Says No to Guns for Domestic Batterers

[KamaAina]

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2016/06/supreme-court-says-no-guns-wife-beaters

Should domestic abusers who get convicted of minor domestic-violence charges get to keep their right to own guns just because their crimes were merely reckless, as opposed to premeditated? That's more or less the question the Supreme Court was considering in Voisine v. US, a somewhat obscure case that was languishing on the court's docket as one of the last cases decided of the term. In a 6-2 opinion written by Justice Elena Kagan, the high court answered that question with a muted "no."

The case challenges a 1996 amendment to the federal Gun Control Act, sponsored and named after the late New Jersey Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D), that barred people convicted of misdemeanor domestic-violence offenses from owning firearms. Violating the law carried a federal felony charge with a 10-year maximum sentence attached. The law was a triumph for women's advocates because it recognized that people guilty of domestic violence were rarely charged with felonies and banned from gun ownership, and that there was a documented relationship between domestic violence and gun homicides. The law was designed to keep guns out of the hands of those perps, even when they'd only been convicted of misdemeanors.

Over the past 10 years, the gun lobby and some criminal defense groups have made a fairly concerted attack on the Lautenberg Amendment on various fronts to weaken its reach and try to return gun rights to batterers. Voisine is the third such case the court has heard since 2009. The latest defendants to take on the law are Stephen Vosine and William Armstrong III, neither of whom are model citizens. Voisine has a long track record of beating up his significant others. He pleaded guilty to assaulting his girlfriend in 2003, and was convicted again of assaulting a girlfriend in 2005....

Domestic-violence advocates had feared that a ruling for Voisine and Armstrong could reopen a loophole in the nation's gun laws that the Lautenberg Amendment was supposed to close. They provided some pretty chilling examples of the types of behavior that, if prosecuted, could have become exempt from triggering the gun ban if Voisine and Armstrong had prevailed. The National Domestic Violence Hotline included in its brief examples from women calling its hotline to illustrate how "reckless acts" that don't necessarily result in injury are usually part of a broader campaign to terrorize and control the victim. Among them were stories like these:

[Duckhunter935]

1. Affirming existing law, good

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

2. Is this law also applied to cops?

Or are they exempt?

[KamaAina]

3. Excellent question!

[jtx]

4. Affirms Existing Federal Law, and it applies to everyone.

Here is the current federal law. The opinion affirmed the application to a "reckless" standard for domestic violence, which is lower than intentional, deliberate, or knowing. The laws vary by state, so the opinion goes to the intended purpose.

The pragmatic issue is making sure that all state court convictions and pleas are gathered and reported, which is the HUGE shortcoming with mental health records.

18 U.S.C.A. § 922 - This federal law applies to all sales of all firearms and ammunition.

(d) It shall be unlawful for any person to sell or otherwise dispose of any firearm or ammunition to any person knowing or having reasonable cause to believe that such person--

(1) is under indictment for, or has been convicted in any court of, a crime punishable by imprisonment for a term exceeding one year;

(2) is a fugitive from justice;

(3) is an unlawful user of or addicted to any controlled substance (as defined in section 102 of the Controlled Substances Act (21 U.S.C. 802));

(4) has been adjudicated as a mental defective or has been committed to any mental institution;

(5) who, being an alien--(A) is illegally or unlawfully in the United States; or(B) except as provided in subsection (y)(2), has been admitted to the United States under a nonimmigrant visa (as that term is defined in section 101(a)(26) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1101(a)(26)));

(6) who has been discharged from the Armed Forces under dishonorable conditions;

(7) who, having been a citizen of the United States, has renounced his citizenship;

(8) is subject to a court order that restrains such person from harassing, stalking, or threatening an intimate partner of such person or child of such intimate partner or person, or engaging in other conduct that would place an intimate partner in reasonable fear of bodily injury to the partner or child, except that this paragraph shall only apply to a court order that--(A) was issued after a hearing of which such person received actual notice, and at which such person had the opportunity to participate; and(B)(i) includes a finding that such person represents a credible threat to the physical safety of such intimate partner or child; or(ii) by its terms explicitly prohibits the use, attempted use, or threatened use of physical force against such intimate partner or child that would reasonably be expected to cause bodily injury; or

(9) has been convicted in any court of a misdemeanor crime of domestic violence.This subsection shall not apply with respect to the sale or disposition of a firearm or ammunition to a licensed importer, licensed manufacturer, licensed dealer, or licensed collector who pursuant to subsection (b) of section 925 of this chapter is not precluded from dealing in firearms or ammunition, or to a person who has been granted relief from disabilities pursuant to subsection (c) of section 925 of this chapter. (This last provision allows the person to dispose of their firearms by selling them to a dealer.)