At the U.S. Supreme Court. Photo by Indianz.Com
The New York Times welcomes the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Voisine v. United States, a ruling that helps keep guns out of the hands of people convicted of domestic violence:
It’s a good thing Congress passed a law in 1996 barring people convicted of domestic violence from buying or owning guns. Today, despite horrifyingly frequent mass shootings and yearly gun deaths topping 30,000, lawmakers, nearly all of them Republican, stand in lock-step formation against even modest gun-control efforts — like preventing people suspected of terrorist ties from easily buying firearms. Twenty years ago, in a somewhat less warped political universe, Congress saw clearly that domestic violence and guns were a deadly mix, and passed, with overwhelming bipartisan support, the Lautenberg Amendment, which barred people convicted of misdemeanor domestic abuse from buying or owning a gun or ammunition. (Those convicted of felony domestic abuse were already subject to a gun ban under federal law.) As one senator said during debate over the bill, all too often “the only difference between a battered woman and a dead woman is the presence of a gun.” On Monday, the Supreme Court ruled, 6-to-2, that the law applies to domestic abusers even if they were found to have committed their offense recklessly, and not intentionally.Get the Story:
Editorial: The Deadly Mix of Guns and Domestic Violence (The New York Times 7/1) U.S. Supreme Court Decision:
Voisine v. United States (June 27, 2016) U.S. Supreme Court Documents:
Docket Sheet No. 14-10154 | Question Presented | Oral Argument Transcript
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