Legal flaw could give guns back to domestic abusers

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Former gun owners who have a misdemeanor conviction for assaulting or threatening a spouse or companion could have their gun rights restored because of a flaw in the federal law.

That's bad news for law enforcement, said Daytona Beach Police Chief Mike Chitwood.

"This opens a whole Pandora's Box," he said. "(Domestic violence) is a precursor to everything."

That prospect grew more likely Nov. 10 after the Supreme Court gave a skeptical hearing to a government lawyer who argued that a crime of domestic violence should result in a loss of gun rights.

Neither families nor police officers should face "the powder keg situation of a domestic offender with a gun," said Nicole Saharsky, a Justice Department lawyer.

And that powder keg could mean murder in Chitwood's eyes.

"There was outrage in the community over Craig Flynt," Chitwood said. "So, the same thing can happen again and again."

Flynt, 37, Daytona Beach, shot 31-year-old Kyishi Dowdell to death just after midnight Aug. 4 in front of their children and police officers who responded to a domestic violence call.

Dowdell and Flynt, now serving life in prison, had a tumultuous history. They were together for 12 years, and court records show Dowdell called police many times because Flynt had beaten her and threatened her with a gun.

"Kids watch that," Chitwood said. "They learn that's how to treat a woman."

Others call it a general public safety issue.

"These are people who already have a violent tendency," said Suzy Williams of The Children's Advocacy Center of Volusia and Flagler Counties. "It's so much more risky to put a gun in their hands."

Despite that, Saharsky ran into sharp questioning from justices who said the law was badly written.

Congress in 1996 sought to strengthen the laws against domestic violence. Before, persons convicted of only violent felonies in such situations lost their rights to own a gun. Going a step further, lawmakers adopted an amendment to take gun rights from those who had a "misdemeanor crime of domestic violence" on their records.

Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., its sponsor, said he was closing a loophole. In domestic violence cases, local prosecutors often agree to have defendants plead guilty to a misdemeanor assault or battery, which usually calls for less than a year in jail, he said.

"There is no reason for someone who beats their wives or abuses their children to own a gun. When you combine wife-beaters and guns, the end result is more death," Lautenberg said on the Senate floor.

But last year, a U.S. appeals court in Virginia cast doubt on the reach of the law. Its judges decided the federal gun ban did not cover misdemeanor convictions involving assault or battery at home. Instead, it said the federal ban applied only to persons who were convicted under a state's domestic violence law.

That would make the federal gun law "a dead letter in two-thirds of the states," the government's lawyer said. She said most states do not have misdemeanor laws on domestic violence.

Justice Antonin Scalia was unswayed by that argument.

Staff Writer Julie Murphy contributed to this Los Angeles Times report.

Read more:
East Volusia News - newsjournalonline.com

Domestic violence abusers could get gun rights - Los Angeles Times

Brady Center Hails Court Ruling Blocking Domestic Abusers From Getting Guns

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Nancy Robertson of ICADV



Nancy Robertson of Iowa Coalition Against Domestic Violence (ICADV) addresses AG's news conference on prohibiting domestic abusers from possessing guns.