Virginia's governor, attorney general, and public safety secretary marked the beginning of Domestic Violence Awareness Month by focusing on the number of homicides committed with guns. Their message is that many of the Commonwealth’s domestic violence deaths last year—and many other fatalities—could have been prevented with several key gun control laws.
Of the 109 people killed by an intimate partner or family member last year, 64 were with a firearm. In many cases, the victims were killed by known abusers who still had access to guns. Sonja Holt is a survivor whose ex-fiancé killed his daughter, her mother, two others, and himself. She says she tried to create a paper trail to show that he was a threat, but even so he was allowed to keep a gun.
“When an abuser has access to firearms, statistics show that domestic violence is more likely to turn deadly. Abusers with a documented history of violence must be held accountable for their abusive behavior.”
A recent report recommends four policies to prevent more abusers from killing. They include prohibiting those subject to protective orders from possessing firearms through the duration of the orders, prohibiting those convicted of domestic violence misdemeanors from possessing or owning firearms, requiring courts to notify these individuals that federal law prohibits them from owning firearms, and authorizing law enforcement to remove firearms from the scene of a domestic violence incident without a warrant.
Opponents of some of the report’s proposals have argued that restricting a person's right for a misdemeanor OR authorizing a search and seizure when someone has not been convicted violates Constitutional rights and sets a dangerous precedent for violating other rights.
