Firearm Ownership in High-Conflict Families: Differences According to State Laws Restricting Firearms to Misdemeanor Crimes of Domestic Violence Offenders

Abstract

This study examines the association between state laws that prohibit firearm ownership for offenders convicted of misdemeanour crimes of domestic violence (MCDV) and firearm ownership in two-parent families with high-conflict male partners with arrest histories. Mixed effects logistic regression models applied to data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Birth cohort (n = 5,350) determined that living in a state with laws that prohibited firearm ownership for convicted MCDV offenders decreased the likelihood of firearm ownership among families with high-conflict males by 62%. The length of the time limit length on firearm prohibition was correlated with incremental decreases in firearm ownership in such families, with the probability of firearm ownership among families with high-conflict males decreasing from 30% in states with no MCDV laws restricting access from firearms to 12% in states with permanent prohibition on firearm ownership. These findings have significance for public health policy aimed at decreasing intimate-partner homicide.

Involvement of Guns in Nonfatal Conflict Between Adult Children and Their Parents

“…Evidence largely indicates that laws prohibiting firearm possession by persons with domestic violence restraining orders are effective at decreasing intimate partner homicide (Bridges et al, 2008; Vigdor & Mercy, 2006; Zeoli & Webster, 2010). While there is less agreement regarding the effects of laws prohibiting firearm possession among persons with misdemeanor charges of domestic violence (Bridges et al, 2008; Vigdor & Mercy, 2006; Zeoli & Webster, 2010), there is some evidence suggesting their effectiveness (Prickett et al, 2018; Raissian, 2016). Some of these analyses have also found beneficial impacts pertaining to gun use against family members who are not specifically intimate partners (Bridges et al, 2008).…”

Domestic Violence Policy: A World of Change

“…Just as “defunding the police” in #BlackLivesMatter includes moving law enforcement monies to more preventative, more community-building, and less criminalizing investments (e.g., education, mental health), so too would decolonizing the police for DV responses, which should also address Indigenous peoples’ land reclamation and governmental sovereignty (see Tuck & Yang, 2012). In addition to CCRs, research documents how safehouses for DV survivors and their children (e.g., Hetling et al, 2018; Miller, 2018), batterer intervention programs designed by marginalized African American men (Holliday et al, 2019), flexible housing funding and home ownership programs for DV survivors and their children (Boggess & Chamberlain, 2020; Sullivan et al, 2019), and laws and programs to remove firearms from DV abusers (Prickett et al, 2018) have all proven effective in deterring and/or providing more safety and a better quality of life with less criminalization for individuals, communities, and CLS workers impacted by DV.…”

Firearms, policy, and intimate partner homicide: A structural and disaggregated examination of Black, Latina, and White female victimization

“…As a result, laws have been implemented at the federal and, in some instances, state level to restrict firearms possession for persons convicted of domestic violence (DV) and those subject to protective orders (VPC, 2021). Scholarship has found IPH is lower in cities and states where state legislation restricts firearm ownership for offenders of IPV, such as through court-ordered protections (i.e., domestic violence restraining orders [DVROs]; Gollub & Gardner, 2019;Prickett et al, 2018;Sivaraman et al, 2019;Vigdor & Mercy, 2006;Zeoli et al, 2018aZeoli et al, , 2018bZeoli & Webster, 2010). Findings are more varied, however, when breaking down the ways in which the legislation restricts ownership (e.g., laws requiring relinquishment/confiscation of firearms after misdemeanors; see Díez et al, 2017;Sivaraman et al, 2019;Vigdor & Mercy, 2006).…”