Domestic violence restraining orders and access to guns: U-M expert discusses

University of Michigan researcher April Zeoli addresses the implications of a recent Texas judge's decision to strike down the federal law prohibiting access to firearms for individuals subject to domestic violence protection orders. Zeoli is one of the nation's leading experts on policy interventions for firearm use in intimate partner violence and serves as director of the policy core at U-M's Institute for Firearm Injury Prevention. Her research focuses on legal firearm restrictions for domestic violence perpetrators and their impact on intimate partner homicide and the implementation of those firearm restrictions. She also studies extreme risk protection orders to remove firearms from high-risk individuals and their use and outcomes, as well as the role of civil and criminal justice system responses to intimate partner violence. How could this West Texas ruling impact those who have filed for domestic violence restraining/protection orders (and their families)? In West Texas, the federal law that made it illegal for domestic violence perpetrators who are under existing restraining orders to have access to or own firearms has been struck down as unconstitutional. Texas still has a state law prohibiting the purchase and possession of firearms by individuals under restraining orders, but it is unclear whether they will enforce this law given the court's ruling. The West Texas court's ruling ultimately means the intimate partners, and their families, who have sought the assistance of the court to remain safe from their assailants are less protected, and the potential for lethal violence has increased substantially.