Bill would require courts to tell abusers to give up guns

Nevada is among 13 states that have tightened restrictions in the last two years to keep guns out of the hands of domestic abusers.

Of the MI homicide victims, 138 were women. “In a state like Utah where we’re watching our domestic violence homicide rate escalate each year, arming more women isn’t going to do anything to prevent violence”.

Because the law went into effect in June, it’s too early to gauge its effect, several officials said.

House Speaker Tim Moore, who led the committee that developed the wide-ranging domestic violence law in 2004, said input from lawyers, judges and victims has helped the state develop “very robust” laws.

In some states, the individual is required to turn them over to law enforcement when subject to a ban.

The bills would have stopped abusers or other potentially violent people from owning firearms at the request of a family member, friend, spouse or partner, if approved by a judge. “And this is a way to stop, hopefully, bad things from happening”, Wittenberg said.

But GOP leaders have agreed to get behind the proposal this year in exchange for the reversal of Attorney General Mark Herring’s policy that would have invalidated in Virginia the concealed handgun permits of residents from 25 states.

“We know having access to a firearm in a domestic violence assault case increases the likelihood of homicide and suicide significantly”, Jenn Oxborrow, executive director of the Utah Domestic Violence Coalition, told The AP.

Massachusetts, with some of the country’s toughest gun laws, has far fewer gun-related domestic violence killings compared to states of a similar size.

“There is no evidence that simply taking away people’s guns without a fair hearing makes the victims any safer”, NRA spokesman Catherine Mortensen said. He said guns should only be removed when the owner poses a clear threat to someone. At different times, we have removed firearms until calmer heads prevail.

Solicitor Duffie Stone, who prosecutes criminal cases for six Lowcountry counties, said the new law provides prosecutors with another tool that can solve the reporting problems — all cases can be tried in General Sessions court, the highest trial level court with a much better system to track records, instead of by a lower-level magistrate. Violating the prohibition is a felony that carries up to five years in prison.

That number included 71 in the Las Vegas area. The law broadly covers spouses, current or former sexual or intimate partners, someone with whom a person has a child, a former or current living mate, parent or guardian, or child. Today, more than 71 percent are from guns.