Westchester NOW

As more information is being released about the two men held as suspects in last fall's Washington, D.C.-area sniper shootings, battered women's advocates are noting the case underscores the need for stronger domestic violence gun legislation.

News outlets are reporting one of the suspects, John Allen Muhammad, has a history of family violence and has been the subject of multiple domestic violence orders of protection. Muhammad is currently being held on federal charges for illegally possessing a firearm while he was the subject of a protection order his second wife held against him.

The Domestic Violence Protective Order Gun Ban prohibits subjects of domestic violence protection orders from purchasing or possessing firearms. Although his wife, Mildred Muhammad, filed for a domestic violence protection order against John Muhammad in March 2000, he allegedly purchased the gun used in the sniper shootings at a gun store in Tacoma, WA, in May 2000. It is unclear why Muhammad was allowed to purchase the weapon.

Domestic Violence Protective Order Gun Ban

The Domestic Violence Protective Order Gun Ban is designed to keep firearms away from those who have been restrained by court order from threatening or harming others. It prohibits people who are the subjects of protection orders from purchasing or carrying firearms. In 1996, despite fierce and continuing opposition from the pro-gun lobby, Congress extended the 1968 Gun Control Act to deny firearm purchases to those convicted of domestic violence misdemeanors or those subject to domestic violence protection orders.

Federal background checks at the time of purchase are designed to prevent batterers, and other people prohibited under the law, from access to weapons. The Federal Bureau of Investigations reports in an April 2001 study that, in its 25 months of operation, the National Instant Criminal Background Check System has blocked 156,644 illegal gun sales. Fourteen percent of these people were denied purchase because of a conviction for a misdemeanor crime of domestic violence. Four percent were denied purchase because they were the subjects of a domestic violence order of protection. But battered women's and gun control advocates note batterers and subjects of domestic violence orders of protection often gain access to handguns because enforcement is weak and background checks fail. The laws also contain loopholes that allow batterers and other felons to buy guns at gun shows or from unlicensed dealers. About 3,000 convicted batterers purchased firearms between 1998 and 2001 because the FBI was unable to complete criminal background checks before the sales went through, according to a draft General Account Office study obtained this summer by the Washington Post.

The Statistics Tell the Story

Guns and domestic violence make a lethal combination, injuring and killing women every day. A gun is the most commonly used weapon in domestic homicide. In 1998, more than four times as many women were murdered with a gun by their husbands or intimate partners than were killed by strangers' guns, knives or other weapons combined (Violence Policy Center; When Men Murder Women: An Analysis of 1998 Homicide Data: Females Murdered by Males in Single Victim/Single Offender Incidents; 2000).

In addition, nearly 1/3 of all women murdered in the United States in 1998 were killed by a current or former intimate partner. Guns were used in almost 2/3 of these domestic homicides (U.S. Department of Justice Bureau of Justice Statistics; Homicide Trends in the U.S., Intimate Partner Homicide; 2001).

In 1998, 808 women were shot and killed by their husbands or intimate acquaintances (U.S. Department of Justice Bureau of Justice Statistics; Homicide Trends in the U.S., Intimate Partner Homicide; 2001). The presence of a gun dramatically increases the chance a domestic violence incident will end in murder. One study found that, in Atlanta, family and intimate assaults involving guns were 12 times more likely to result in death than family and intimate assaults not involving guns (L. Saltzman, et.al; Weapon Involvement and Injury Outcomes in Family and Intimate Assaults; 1992).

In 1998, for every time a woman used a handgun to kill an intimate partner in self-defense, 83 women were murdered by an intimate partner with a handgun (Violence Policy Center; When Men Murder Women: An Analysis of 1998 Homicide Data: Females Murdered by Males in Single Victim/Single Offender Incidents; 2000).

Domestic violence misdemeanor convictions and restraining orders were the second most common reason for denials of handgun purchase applications (U.S. Department of Justice Bureau of Justice Statistics; A National Estimate: Presale Handgun Checks, the Brady Interim Period, 1994-98; 1999).

This article was reprinted and adapted from 'News Flash' (http://www.fvpf.org/newsflash), an online newsletter of the Family Violence Prevention Fund, Family Violence Prevention Fund, 383 Rhode Island Street, Suite 304, San Francisco, CA 94103-5133.

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