Op-Ed: 5th Circuit ruling is detrimental for domestic violence survivors
By Kathryn Jacob, LMSW for the Dallas Morning News
The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled on guns and domestic violence offenders.
Before we talk survivors, let’s jump in and talk guns, the persistent third rail of national politics. The gun conversation is a hard one — we get that. But we can do hard things.
Everyone take a deep breath.
Let’s be clear on what we know to be true: The vast majority of gun owners do so legally and responsibly — and many are supporters of our work here at SafeHaven, a family violence center in Tarrant County. We know that gun ownership does not mean there is violence in a relationship. One can both own a gun and be a loving partner. And, seemingly obvious, guns do not cause domestic violence (nor does alcohol, unemployment, mental illness or any other outside issue).
Domestic violence abusers cause domestic violence. Blame lies entirely at their feet.
Another deep breath.
We also know that access to a gun by an abusive partner means that the abuser is five times more likely to kill his female victim, according to The American Journal of Public Health.
We know, from Harvard School of Public Health data, that homicide is the number one cause of death among pregnant and postpartum women. Yes, you read that right: number one cause, higher than any pregnancy-related complication. We know that most domestic violence homicides are by gunshot.
We know that 100% of law enforcement and bystanders killed in 2021 domestic violence homicide incidents in Texas were killed by an abuser with a firearm, according to the Texas Council on Family Violence.
There is no denying that when abuse and guns are present in a relationship — both together — the situation becomes very dangerous.
All of these things can be true at the same time.
Now let’s discuss what we know about the recent ruling by the 5th Circuit. This is an appellate court, and the ruling impacts those living in Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi. Prior to this ruling, federal law — the Violence Against Women Act in 1994 — prohibited those named by a protective order for domestic violence from possessing a firearm. These are dangerous people; it is not simply a scorned lover making a claim.
These are dangerous people as determined by our legal system, by the courts, based on evidence. The evidence against them clearly indicated they were dangerous enough to threaten the safety of someone else, they were then named the subject of a protective order, and thus their access to a firearm was prohibited.
This recent ruling by the 5th Circuit was the product of a three-judge panel. They ruled unanimously that a known domestic violence abuser who is the subject of a protective order does, in fact, have a constitutional right to possess a firearm.
SafeHaven is Tarrant County’s only organization solely working in domestic violence. We’re the county’s only state-designated family violence program. In our role, we remain dedicated to keeping victims safe and holding offenders accountable. The ruling doesn’t change the research. It doesn’t change what we know.
One thing we still know is the importance of survivors’ continued access to the protective order process. We cannot stress this enough: Securing a protective order through the legal system remains a vital tool in a survivor’s toolbox. As always, we will continue to work with survivors to ensure they are able to fully experience freedom from domestic violence with access to all the interventions available to them.
We will convene with the Texas Council on Family Violence, our statewide coalition of domestic violence organizations, to determine next steps — but in the meantime, our resolve is strengthened. We will continue to keep victims safe and hold offenders accountable — work we have been wildly successful at for decades.
Kathryn Jacob is president and chief executive of SafeHaven, Tarrant County’s only state-designated family violence program, whose mission is to end domestic violence. She wrote this column for The Dallas Morning News.