Leaders Call Appeals Court\u2019s Decision A \u2018Dangerous Precedent\u2019
\nLocal and state leaders are condemning a federal ruling that allows people with domestic violence restraining orders against them to own firearms. Advocates who have been demanding stricter gun laws, particularly in the wake of recent mass shootings, call it a step backwards.
\nThe Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Feb. 2, striking down a previous law that prohibited abusers from having access to guns. The court\u2019s decision stemmed from the case of a White man, Zackey Rahimi, convicted of a handful of shootings near Arlington, Texas, from December 2020 to January 2021. Rahimi had been under a domestic violence restraining order after allegedly beating his girlfriend.
\nSacramento-based organization WEAVE (Women Escaping A Violent Environment) called the decision a \u201cdangerous precedent.\u201d
\n\u201cAny ruling or action that makes firearms more accessible to abusers increases risk of serious injury or death for victims,\u201d said Julie Bornhoeft, WEAVE\u2019s chief strategy and sustainability officer. \u201cAt a time when actions should focus on making it safer and easier for a victim to leave a violent situation and keep victims and children safe, the ruling accomplishes the opposite.\u201d
\nThe California Partnership to End Domestic Violence shared the sentiment.
\n\u201cCalifornia Partnership to End Domestic Violence and anti-violence advocates across the state are rightfully disturbed by the precedent that Judge [Cory] Wilson\u2019s opinion on United States v. Rahimi sets for the safety of domestic violence victims and all Americans. This ruling puts domestic violence victims and their communities in grave danger,\u201d reads a statement provided to The OBSERVER.
\nWhile the fifth circuit\u2019s decision applies only to Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi, some fear what it could mean in California.
\n\u201cWhile the ruling does not impact California today, it creates an opportunity to weaken common-sense gun laws intended to protect families,\u201d Bornhoeft said.
\nIn the opinion, Judge Wilson referred to the previous ban on gun ownership as a \u201cregulatory straightjacket\u201d that is \u201can outlier that our ancestors would never have accepted.\u201d
\nGov. Gavin Newsom has called out Wilson and the court\u2019s other two judges, James Ho and Edith Jones, who made last week\u2019s decision, calling them \u201czealots\u201d who are \u201chellbent on a deranged vision of guns for all.\u201d All three were nominated to their roles by ultraconservative, Republican presidents: Wilson and Ho by Donald Trump, Jones in 1985 by Ronald Reagan.
\n\u201cWake up, America \u2013 this assault on our safety will only accelerate,\u201d Gov. Newsom said in a statement. \u201cThis is serious \u2013 and it\u2019s coming to California. We are probably only weeks away from another activist judge, Judge Roger Benitez, striking down California\u2019s bans on assault weapons and large-capacity magazines. California will continue to fight against these extremist judges to protect our residents\u2019 right to be free from gun violence.\u201d
\nJessica Merrill, a spokesperson for the California Partnership to End Domestic Violence, said California as a national leader bears responsibility for working to prevent domestic violence and community homicides.
\n\u201cGuns must be kept away from people who commit acts of domestic violence. It is essential that California\u2019s courts and law enforcement agencies effectively uphold these firearms prohibitions,\u201d Merrill said.
\nWhile gun rights issues continue to be debated in and outside of courtrooms, advocates urge people to remember what\u2019s really at stake: human lives.
\n\u201cThere is no doubt that firearms and domestic violence are a deadly combination,\u201d Merrill said. \u201cA person who causes harm is five times more likely to kill their partner when they have access to a firearm. According to the state attorney general\u2019s 2021 Homicide in California report, communities and survivors of color are disproportionately impacted.\u201d
\nThe Centers For Disease Control and Prevention places Black women as twice as likely to be shot and killed by an intimate partner as White women. According to 2020 data from the Violence Policy Center, in the 571 homicides for which the murder weapon could be identified, 72% of Black female victims were shot and killed with guns. The number of Black females shot and killed by their husband or intimate acquaintance was more than three times as high as the total number murdered by male strangers.
\n\u201cThe ruling by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ignores research and places not only victims and their families at risk, but entire communities,\u201d Bornhoeft said.<\/p>\n
Sacobserver<\/p>\n
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Leaders Call Appeals Court\u2019s Decision A \u2018Dangerous Precedent\u2019 Local and state leaders are condemning a federal ruling that allows people with domestic violence restraining orders against them to own firearms. Advocates who have been demanding stricter gun laws, particularly in the wake of recent mass shootings, call it a step backwards. The Fifth Circuit Court […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":6047,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1154],"tags":[2094,1723,1941],"class_list":["post-6046","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-trending","tag-call","tag-court","tag-leaders"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6046","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6046"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6046\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6048,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6046\/revisions\/6048"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6047"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6046"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6046"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6046"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}