Every month in the US, roughly 70 women are shot and killed by their partners. Yet in February 2023, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals overturned a 1994 law banning firearms possession for people subject to domestic violence protection orders, part of a wave of lower-court challenges to gun regulations following the Supreme Court’s pivotal 2022 decision in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen.
On May 5, the Center for the Study of Guns & Society convened historians, legal scholars, and gun violence prevention experts for a symposium, “Lessons from History on Domestic Violence, Firearms, and the Law.”
“The symposium convened leading researchers and practitioners from a variety of perspectives for a wide-ranging conversation about how firearms and domestic violence are entwined, historically and today,” said Jennifer Tucker, associate professor of history and the Center’s founding director. “The speakers presented findings from the latest legal, historical, public health, and policy research as well as discussed the implications of the Court’s decision for the domestic violence crisis, and how the proliferation of guns in US homes affects historical patterns of domestic (physical, sexual, and psychological) abuse.”
Read more in The Wesleyan Connection. See photos from the event.
