The Supreme Court in the USA has confirmed a gun ban for perpetrators of domestic violence. Eight of the nine judges voted in favor. US President Biden welcomed the ruling and is pushing for further tightening of the law.
The right to bear arms in the USA is firmly anchored in the constitution. But now the US Supreme Court has ruled that this right can be restricted for certain people. The US Supreme Court has confirmed a ban on firearm ownership for perpetrators of domestic violence in order to protect the victims.
Chief Justice John Roberts justified the decision of the conservative-majority Supreme Court by eight out of nine votes, saying it was constitutional to “temporarily” disarm people “who pose a credible threat to the physical safety of another person.”
The country’s gun laws have always included rules to prevent people “who threaten others with physical violence from misusing firearms,” Roberts continued. Applied to the present case, the law fits easily into this tradition.
Conservative Justice Clarence Thomas spoke out against the decision, saying that US states already have criminal prosecution as a means of disarming anyone who uses a weapon to threaten physical violence against others.
Texan had sued against the law
The case involved a Texan man who had hit his girlfriend during an argument and threatened to shoot her. He was banned from owning weapons by a judge. During a search of his home, police found a pistol and a rifle. At the hearing, some judges expressed concern that a decision for the man to carry weapons again could also jeopardize the background check system for gun purchases.
The background to the trial is a 1994 law that prohibits people who have a domestic violence restraining order from owning weapons. According to the government, more than 75,000 gun sales have been stopped in connection with domestic violence protection orders over the past 25 years on the basis of the law.
Lawyers for victims of domestic violence and gun control groups had asked the court to uphold the law. According to the gun control group Everytown for Gun Safety, an average of seventy women per month in the United States are shot by their partners. Gun lobbyists supported the Texan and argued that a gun ban could not be justified in his case.
Based on a landmark decision from 2022, an ultra-conservative federal appeals court in March last year declared the federal law prohibiting perpetrators of domestic violence from owning firearms unconstitutional. The judges argued that there were no historical precedents for this.
Biden welcomes Supreme Court ruling
In June 2022, the Supreme Court judges ruled that carrying firearms in public – and not just owning guns – is a fundamental right. The ruling also set a new standard that must be met for a restriction on the right to bear arms enshrined in the Second Amendment. Accordingly, such restrictions must be rooted in “the history and traditions of the United States” from the late 18th and 19th centuries.
US President Joe Biden welcomed the Supreme Court’s decision and announced that he would continue to push for stricter rules. “Today’s ruling means survivors of domestic violence and their families can continue to rely on important protections, just as they have for the past three decades,” Biden said.