“Only 17 states and the District of Columbia have passed gun-relinquishment bills that force domestic abusers and other violent offenders with restraining orders to hand over their firearms,” Diane Diamond writes at stwnewspress.com. Click here to check your state’s laws. And note . . .
A restraining order does not equal a criminal conviction. Judges can and do issue restraining order ex parte (without the accused’s presence or foreknowledge). So the first a gun owner may know about the imminent loss of his gun rights is a knock on the door by the local constabulary.
Ms. Diamond is OK with this — despite misgivings that hint at an even greater desire for gun rights restrictions.
Could a determined offender get another gun illegally? Yes, that’s a whole different and difficult problem. But according to a study by Michigan State University states that take guns from known violent criminals have a 22 percent lower rate of intimate-partner homicide by gun. Naturally, it is women and children who suffer the most.
Correlation doesn’t equal causation. Learn that for the children!
Anyway, what’s your take on restraining order-related firearms confiscation? Would you be OK with it if the gun-grabbing order couldn’t be issued ex parte?