The US supreme court will hear oral arguments on Tuesday in a case which gun and domestic violence prevention groups are warning could be a matter of life and death for thousands of abuse victims and their families.
Tuesday’s hearing on United States v Rahimi is seen as one of the most consequential cases with which the nine justices will grapple this term. At stake is how far the new hard-right supermajority of the court will go in unraveling the US’s already lax gun laws, even as the country reels from a spate of devastating mass shootings.
Also at stake, say experts, are the lives of thousands of Americans, overwhelmingly women, threatened with gun violence at the hands of their current or former intimate partners.
There is at least enough proof to issue a restraining order, though. They don’t do that frivolously.
In order for a restraining order to be useful it needs to be issued on no proof at all. It takes a lot of investigation to find enough proof issue them - time that actual abusers can use to harm their victims even more. In short they are frivolously issued by nature. Then we do a proper investigation and determine if there really is something going on.
And, in the mean time, abuser shoots his ex-partner in the face, even with a restraining order, because guns make it extremely quick and easy to murder a person. That is exactly what they’re designed to do, after all.
100% a restraining order is given without evidence, a domestic abuse charge requires evidence.
When someone who is abused leaves the relationship it’s a very dangerous time for them. Plus, I don’t like the state being able to take action against civilians without the burden of evidence.