To amend title 18, United States Code, to protect more victims of domestic violence by preventing their abusers from possessing or receiving firearms and to amend the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968 to establish a grant program relating to the removal of firearms from adjudicated domestic violence offenders, and for other purposes.
This bill strengthens federal protections for domestic violence survivors by expanding firearm restrictions on abusers and establishing a grant program to help states enforce these restrictions. Currently, federal law only prevents individuals with restraining orders from possessing guns if they were married to or lived with their abuser, leaving dating partners and other victims unprotected. The bill broadens this definition to include dating partners and anyone in a relationship similar to a spouse, and closes loopholes that allow abusers to keep guns under emergency protective orders. The bill also authorizes federal grants to states, tribal governments, and local jurisdictions to establish and implement firearm surrender procedures, requiring abusers subject to domestic violence protection orders to surrender their guns within 24 hours or face law enforcement removal. Research cited in the bill shows that states with similar protections experience a 13 percent reduction in intimate partner homicides, addressing the fact that women with abusive partners who have access to firearms are five times more likely to be killed.
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