Yesterday, Congress passed the Safer Communities Act, gun safety legislation that will save lives. The most significant gun reform legislation in 30 years, the Act brings specific relief to survivors of domestic violence. Currently, a spouse convicted of domestic abuse is unable to purchase or possess a gun. The new law closes the so-called boyfriend loophole: now, a non-married violent partner will face the same restrictions.
The impact will be significant. In 2020, gun intimate partner homicide rose to the highest level in almost 30 years. Each month, an average of 57 women are shot and killed by their intimate partner, according to the 2019 report “Guns and Violence Against Women.” The same report spotlights another one million women each year who survived being shot or shot at by an intimate partner. Indeed, intimate partners with a gun are responsible for more than half of all women who are killed. Nearly 4.5 million women have reported being threatened with a gun by their intimate partner. Even without brandishing a gun, the vice grip of an abuser’s coercion and control is steeled by merely possessing one or having easy access to one. Children and other family members suffer their own trauma when they witness gun violence between intimate partners.
At TurnAround, we know the devastating violent overlap of intimate partner violence and guns that affects our clients. In our current fiscal year, 70% of our new clients reported that their abuser is or was a spouse or other intimate partner. Among our survivors who had completed a lethality assessment with law enforcement, 55% reported that their abuser had used a weapon against them, and 45% reported that their abuser had or could easily get a gun.
Closing this so-called boyfriend loophole is important progress and will keep people alive. We celebrate this victory, but there is more work to be done. Next, we will fight for strict enforcement of these new protections from gun violence by an intimate partner. We will seek to expand the law to keep convicted stalkers from acquiring or possessing a gun. And as we have for 40 years, we will advocate for changes in the community, the legislature, and the courts that will improve outcomes for survivors.
