The Impact of Legal Firearms Restrictions for Perpetrators of Domestic Violence on Intimate Partner Homicide

• In Event: Gun Possession and Its Consequences

Abstract

Whether legal firearms restrictions are effective in reducing gun violence and homicide is an important and timely question. In this research, we investigate this question by analyzing the impact of laws that are expressly designed to reduce a specific subset of homicide: firearms prohibitions for those subject to domestic violence restraining orders and for those convicted of misdemeanor domestic violence. There is great variation among states on whether and how these restrictions are legislated; these variations may be critically important to the implementation and effectiveness of the laws. The goals of this project are to determine whether the potential impact of these policies on intimate partner homicide are affected by 1) broader coverage of firearm restrictions to many groups of domestic violence offenders; 2) the provision of specific power to the justice system to compel firearm surrender or removal from prohibited persons; and/or 3) the presence of additional state laws designed to prevent diversion of guns to prohibited persons. To that end, we conducted a quantitative policy evaluation using annual state-level data from 1980 through 2013 for 46 states. Results will be presented and implications of the research discussed.

Authors

• April Marie Zeoli, Michigan State University

• Alex McCourt, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

• Shannon Frattaroli, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

• Shani Buggs, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

• Daniel Webster, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health