Safe Harbor director: Court ruling a victory
ASHLAND Individuals labeled as “domestic abusers” are barred from obtaining firearms, according to a major Supreme Court ruling Friday.
The controversial ruling (United States v. Rahimi) came down to a 8-1 vote early Friday morning, which upheld a federal law that forbids domestic abuse suspects from owning a gun in the United States.
Ann Perkins, Executive Director of Safe Harbor in northeastern Kentucky, said the highest court in the land has paved a huge path of success in their fight to protect women in abusive relationships.
“The majority of women — not all — who come in our doors will tell us they have been threatened with guns their whole life. It’s just so pervasive with our culture and in our state. The majority of all deaths are by gun,” she said.
“After they overturned the (Trump-era ban) on bump stocks, I was very, very worried that they would overturn this ruling, too,” Perkins said.
ZEROV, a statewide coalition dedicated to helping survivors of intimate partner violence and their children in Kentucky, was “encouraged” by the ruling, Angela H. Yannelli, chief executive officer, said.
“Today, the Supreme Court made it clear that this long-established and effective legal tool against intimate partner homicide is constitutional as well as common sense,” she said.
The ruling fully upholds the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994, which kept weapons out of the hands of abusive partners subject to qualifying domestic violence protective orders, Yannelli said.
“Lives will be saved as a direct result of today’s ruling,” she said. “We know this because studies show a clear connection between abusive partners with guns and rates of intimate partner homicide. When male abusers have access to a firearm, the risk they will shoot and kill their female partner increases by over 1,000%.”
Guns should not be in the hands of knowingly dangerous individuals, Perkins said. Certain people with mental health issues or anybody who has had a violent background have no business carrying a weapon, she said.
“When they say it goes against their constitutional rights, then I say we have the right to live in a safe community,” Perkins said. “There has to be a balance and a balance is not afforded to people who use violence.
“It’s a huge percentage of our population,” Perkins said of victims of abusive partners. “One in four is what we know. If the truth was known, it would probably be more than that. A lot of people will never reveal they have been victimized by intimate partners.”
The problem, she has observed, is how the country has become such a “guns at all cost” place of living, she said.
“At the cost of our children, at the cost of our safety, communities,” she said. “In other words, we are placing more importance on saving guns than saving lives.”
