In this op-ed during Domestic Violence Awareness Month, Melody McFadden calls on the Supreme Court to reverse a lower court ruling that would allow people subject to domestic violence restraining orders to access guns.
When I was a young girl living in South Carolina, my mother, Patricia Ann, was shot and killed by an abusive dating partner. He murdered her in front of my three younger sisters — who were 10, 11, and 12 at the time — with an sawed-off shotgun. He was a convicted felon who should never have had access to the firearm he used to take our mother away from us forever. My sisters and I are grown now, but we still feel her absence every single day.
My mom had lived with the man who killed her for years, enduring beatings, bruisings and hospitalizations. Frustratingly, I’ve been asked in the years since “why didn’t she just leave?” But there are so many barriers survivors face in a domestic violence situation, especially when they are poor. My mom was held hostage by an emotional cycle of abuse as I know so many survivors of domestic violence are. Many worry that leaving their abusers can put their lives — and the lives of their children — at even greater risk.
And yet, a group of extremist judges has made a decision that will make life for people in abusive situations even more dangerous. In February, a three-judge panel of the federal Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in United States v. Rahimi that the federal prohibition on gun possession for people subject to domestic violence restraining orders is unconstitutional under the Second Amendment.
The Fifth Circuit’s decision in Rahimi is putting domestic violence survivors living in the Fifth Circuit in danger right now. I know firsthand that this is not an abstract exercise. If the decision is not reversed, domestic violence survivors face the prospect that their abusers can arm themselves immediately. This ruling is a potential death sentence for countless women and families.
Now, it is up to the United States Supreme Court to decide whether they will side with the extremists on the Fifth Circuit or side with women and families and reverse this deadly ruling. The Supreme Court must do the latter — because lives are on the line.
I know from my work with other domestic violence survivors and from my own experience that, for many, getting a restraining order isn’t an easy process. It’s a hard-fought protection that takes the surmounting of many obstacles to secure. But for domestic violence survivors under the purview of the Fifth Circuit in Louisiana, Texas and Mississippi, the feelings of safety and relief that accompany a restraining order are now gone, replaced by uncertainty about whether they will be protected in the short run — and new gravity to the hypervigilance and fear they’ve already been living with for God knows how long. When survivors are able to secure a domestic violence restraining order against their abuser, it should go without saying that an abuser can't keep their guns — or easily go out and buy one.
Let me be clear: I have no problem with guns. I’m a proud Army veteran and worked in the police department after returning to civilian life. I’m also a gun owner. But I do have a problem with allowing guns to fall into the hands of those who are a danger to themselves or others, like the man who killed my mom.
In the years since my mother’s murder, I’ve learned that access to a gun makes it five times more likely that a woman will die at the hands of an abusive partner, according to research cited by Everytown, and nearly one million women alive today have been shot or shot at by an intimate partner. The presence of a gun in the home also exacerbates the power and control dynamic used by abusers to inflict emotional abuse and exert coercive control over victims and survivors, even when abusers do not ultimately pull the trigger. The threat of violence can keep many women and children living in fear.
Common sense gun safety laws that protect survivors of domestic abuse are among the most important public safety laws in our country — and they’re also among those with the strongest, bipartisan support among Americans. For the time being, the recent opinion affects Louisiana, Texas and Mississippi. But how many people in those three states are hiding behind a locked door? How many are packing their bags to flee their homes? How many are covering up their bruises with makeup or long sleeves? And if this ruling is not overturned, how many more victims and survivors are out there awaiting the same fate, tantamount to a death sentence?
Right now, domestic violence survivors around the country have a target on their backs, and the Supreme Court must act to reverse this dangerous and unjust decision. Until then, we won’t stop fighting, because no one deserves to live in fear or to die at the hands of their abuser.
If you or someone you know is experiencing domestic violence or intimate partner violence, you can call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233, available 24/7, for confidential assistance from a trained advocate. If you’re unable to speak safely via phone, you can chat online at thehotline.org.
