U.S. Attorneys Protect Victims of Domestic Violence by Enforcing Federal Gun Laws

 December 8, 2020

Courtesy of Laura L. Rogers, Principal Deputy Director, Office on Violence Against Women

At the Office on Violence Against Women, we frequently share stories about the work performed by recipients of our grant programs to highlight the partnerships that help keep people safe. I am always in awe of the creativity, dedication and sizable difference these grant programs make in the lives of victims and survivors.

As a former prosecutor, today I am excited to discuss a program that works to prevent domestic violence homicides and to discuss the role that U.S. Attorneys play in helping to achieve this success.

As we shared in last week’s episode of Patchwork, the presence of a gun at a domestic violence scene results in a five-fold increase in the possibility of a death occurring.  Anecdotal evidence shows that mass shootings are often committed by a person with a history of domestic violence. In this week’s podcast, we talk to Erin Nealy Cox, the U.S. Attorney in the Northern district of Texas who leads a nationwide effort by the Attorney General to prevent violence.

While domestic violence crimes are prosecuted at the local or state level, the Department of Justice has the ability to use federal gun laws to remove firearms from people who have local or state convictions for domestic violence in an effort to keep victims, survivors and their families safe.

As Erin explains in this week’s episode, one benefit of federal gun law prosecution is there is no need for the victim in the local or state domestic violence case to appear or testify in federal court when the abuser is being prosecuted for a federal gun law violation.

The law is clear: A misdemeanor or felony conviction for domestic violence allows for a federal prosecution for removal of a firearm from an abuser to try to prevent more violence. As Erin explains, we want lawyers and judges nationwide to know that when a convicted abuser has a gun, we can prosecute them for that crime in federal court.

Preventing crime is a top priority for us at the Department of Justice and I am proud to work with people like Erin who strive to help victims of domestic violence and save lives.