From KERA News:
Maury Danielle says her ex regularly threatened her with gun violence during their marriage — a common experience for survivors of domestic abuse.
“It was always the intimidation of weapons and the deep desire for them,” Danielle said.
Danielle says she would come home from church and find him looking at guns on his computer. That, she says, was one of the many ways her abuser would assert power and control. She later founded a nonprofit, B Free 2 Fly International, to advocate for survivors of domestic violence like herself.
Firearms make domestic violence situations deadlier. The presence of a gun in a domestic violence situation increases a woman’s risk of being killed by as much as 500% according to the Texas Council on Family Violence.
Federal law bans domestic abusers that are subject to protective orders from having guns. The Supreme Court upheld the law last year in its 8-1 ruling on U.S. v. Zackey Rahimi, a case that originated in North Texas. But domestic violence advocates say the lack of enforcement of the firearm prohibition in Texas that played a part in Rahimi’s case hasn’t changed — and that could be fatal for victims.
Texas has a state law similar to the federal statute. So does California. But unlike Texas, California has a provision that requires people under protective orders to prove to the court that they’ve relinquished their firearms — something advocates say makes a difference. Texas doesn’t have a statewide system in place to collect and store those weapons while the protective order is in effect.
California has about 39 million residents — significantly more than the 31.3 million people who live in Texas. But a KERA analysis of homicide data documented 44 confirmed intimate partner homicides in California that were committed with a firearm in 2023, according to the state’s department of justice. Texas had 142 that same year according to a report from the Texas Council on Family Violence.
Different accountability
In 2022, the KERA analysis found that California had 48 intimate partner gun killings. That’s compared to 153 in Texas according to data from the Texas Council on Family Violence report for that same year.
The Texas Council on Family Violence reports that at least 18 perpetrators in 2022 and 20 in 2023 were already legally prohibited from possessing a firearm. And those numbers are likely an underestimation due to a lack of accessible data according to the organization’s 2022 report.
California also has a lower overall firearm mortality rate than Texas. California had 3,484 firearm deaths in 2022 according to the Centers for Disease Control. Texas had 4,630.
California and Texas follow a similar process for domestic violence protective orders. But people that are subject to protective orders in California have 48 hours after being served with the restraining order to prove to the court that they sold their firearms and ammunition to a licensed gun dealer or stored them with law enforcement or a licensed gun dealer. Otherwise, they could be arrested for violating the restraining order.
The same isn’t true in Texas. Molly Voyles, the public policy director at the Texas Council on Family Violence, said the lack of follow-up can be frustrating.
“The survivor knows they’re prohibited, but they don’t truly have the weight off of them ,” Voyles said.
The law requiring people under protective orders to give up their firearms has existed in California for decades. And the state passed an additional law in Oct. 2021 that required courts to review the proof of compliance file and alert law enforcement and prosecutors if the person didn’t comply. It also required local courts to provide people with information about how and where to relinquish their firearms.
The law went into effect in Jan. 2022. Julia Weber, an attorney and social worker based in California, worked on the statute. She said the additional follow-up was necessary.
“We’re seeing a huge uptick in compliance,” Weber said.
Violating the federal law that bars abusers from having firearms while under a protective order is a felony. Weber said the potential punishment is a deterrent. Convicted felons have a lifetime ban from having guns in California. In Texas, convicted felons may be able to have a gun in their home five years after completing their sentence.
Maury, who is from Texas but moved to California while married to her abuser, said she felt safer in California because of the state’s laws.
“California did a much better job of protecting me,” she said.
Dangerous individual
The Supreme Court ruled last year that the federal law in the Rahimi case doesn’t violate the Second Amendment.
“When an individual has been found by a court to pose a credible threat to the physical safety of another, that individual may be temporarily disarmed consistent with the Second Amendment,” the court said.
Zackey Rahimi’s case made its way to the Supreme Court from Arlington after Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the domestic violence law violated his Second Amendment rights. The Fifth Circuit based its ruling on the Supreme Court’s decision in N.Y. State Rifle & Pistol Association, Inc. v. Bruen, which laid out a framework for determining the constitutionality of gun laws that requires modern gun regulations to have a historic analogue.
Rahimi’s girlfriend got a protective order in Tarrant County in Feb. 2020 after he allegedly knocked her to the ground and slammed her head into a car dashboard during an argument. But while the protective order was in effect, police say Rahimi – who they described as a drug dealer — allegedly shot into the air after his friend’s credit card was declined at a Whataburger. He also was accused of shooting at another driver after a car accident, and three other incidents in which he fired a gun.
Police investigating the shootings found a copy of the protective order and several firearms when they executed a search warrant at Rahimi’s home.
Weber said cases like Rahimi’s are why California added additional steps for accountability regarding firearms prohibitions for protective orders.
“We believe in California is that as close to the time of prohibition as possible, we need to make sure that order is fully implemented,” she said.
Voyles said the lack of accountability can be frustrating for survivors of domestic violence in Texas. She said close to 70% of survivors whose abuser owned a firearm have faced death threats.
“We have a law that we use to stop it, but we’re not going to enforce it,” Voyles said.
