Domestic Murder Rates Unaffected by Gun Bans Linked to Restraining Orders

AmmoLand ^ | October 8, 2023 | Dean Weingarten

[marktwain]

John Lott and Carlisle E. Moody have authored a paper examining the effect of the Lautenberg Amendment prohibition on the possession of firearms by people subject to a domestic violence restraining order. The relevant statute is 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(8). From the abstract:

We find that 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(8) has no statistically significant beneficial impact on domestic murder, domestic femicide, domestic gun murder, or domestic gun femicide.

Lott and Moody’s paper shows no policy advantages gained from the federal ban on the possession of firearms by people under a domestic violence restraining order. The ban fails to accomplish its stated goal of reducing intimate partner homicides. It fails to reduce even domestic femicides committed with guns. The findings of the research have been submitted to the Supreme Court as part of an Amicus brief for the United States v Rahimi case by the Crime Prevention Research Center.

The findings indicate exactly what some in the gun rights community long suspected. John Lott, Carlisle Moody, and the Crime Prevention Research Center have done the nation a significant service with this sophisticated analysis of 38 years of dense homicide data from the FBI Supplemental Homicide Reports (SHR). The data is available from 1976 – 2020. Bolstering and confirming the basic evidence from the SHR are detailed data on state-level domestic violence law and restraining orders.

A look at the data on intimate partner homicide shows a clear and convincing pattern in the SHR data. From 1976 to 1996, the intimate partner homicide rate dropped dramatically, as shown in this graph from a Bureau of Justice Statistics Factbook published in March of 1998.

The chart shows raw numbers.

[marktwain]

Even the raw data is amazing. Intimate partner homicides drop significantly from 1976 to 1996. Then Lautenberg goes into effect. Then intimate partner homicides level off, as overall homicides decrease significantly.

[LouAvul]

Wait! You mean the criminal abortion of the Second Amendment actually doesn’t stop gun crime? Noo! Next you’ll be telling me that all three branches of government are complicit in our treasonous open borders policy!

[bert]

The ban would be unenforceable.

[fruser1]

no policy advantages

Correction, no STATED policy advantages.

The real goal is to just disarm as many as they can, even if it's in small bites.