Domestic abusers shouldn’t have guns, and we’re working to crack down on them

David Bailey never should have had a gun.

Just 59 days before he murdered his wife, Bailey was issued a protective order, a legal document that disqualified him from carrying a firearm. And yet, in May 2017, he opened fire just outside Fort Worth’s Ridgmar Mall, killing his spouse in her own car.

Tragically, a single homicide is just the beginning when it comes to domestic violence.

More than half of America’s mass shootings — those killing four or more people — are cases of extreme domestic violence. Over an eight-year period, 422 victims, including 181 children, were killed in mass shootings by perpetrators targeting intimate partners or family members, according to a study published last year.

Many Americans are rightly concerned about random gun violence — shooters with no apparent criminal history firing indiscriminately, motivated by hateful ideologies or triggered by mental illness.

My own employees fell victim to a random active shooting this summer, when a masked gunman opened fire on our federal courthouse. Due to the heroism of law enforcement, no government employees or bystanders were killed, but it was scary and emotional for all involved.

Naturally, I’m eager to assist law enforcement and policymakers in focusing on preventing these arbitrary shootings. As U.S. attorney, however, I want the statistics to guide my focus. Resources everywhere are limited, so we need data to achieve the biggest impact possible.

One of the most direct ways for federal prosecutors to stem the tide of gun violence is to vigorously enforce the federal prohibition against domestic violence abusers accessing guns.

U.S. law bars convicted felons, as well as people subject to certain domestic violence protective orders or convicted of domestic violence misdemeanors, from possessing firearms.

Unlawful possession carries a penalty of up to 10 years in federal prison.

However, as researchers in my district have noted, those gun laws — underscored in big, bold type at the bottom of the surrender form — haven’t been uniformly enforced.

Without any evidence about an abuser’s access to firearms, the burden falls on state and county judges to determine whether the offender has a gun and then to convince him or her that failure to turn over the firearm isn’t worth the risk of potential consequences to come.

Perhaps that’s why a gun surrender program launched in Dallas County in 2015 collected only about 60 weapons in two years when it aimed to take in 1,600.

In an effort to send a message to would-be violators, my office announced a renewed push to prosecute domestic violence offenders who — after conviction or notice of a protective order — are discovered with a gun. We’ve also pledged to work with local district attorneys, judges and survivor groups to identify defendants ripe for federal firearm prosecution.

And we’ve been active in convening an Attorney General’s Advisory Committee Working Group to help districts across the nation bring similar cases, under the auspices of Project Guardian, the Attorney General’s new gun violence reduction initiative.

We hope that by emphasizing the consequence that comes with illegal gun possession, we can motivate future abusers to turn over their weapons. Of course, it would be naïve to assume every offender will willingly do so, but even a handful of guns off the street could have a real impact.

Research shows the mere presence of a gun during a domestic violence incident increases homicide risk by 500 percent, and abusers are five times more likely to kill an intimate partner if there is a gun in the home. Here in Texas, about 60 percent of batterers who murdered their partner wielded a gun, according to a fatality review team.

We recognize and support local authorities who are working hard to bring domestic violence offenders to justice. We applaud their vigilance and determination to take on these difficult cases. But I firmly believe that enforcement of federal gun laws can help curb violent crime.

With so many domestic disputes escalating from bruises to bullet wounds, it’s incumbent on everyone to help end abuse. I am proud to report the Department of Justice is doing just this.