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Donna Engle |
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| Offenders may have to turn in guns |
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| By Donna Engle, Legal Matters |
Monday, August 17, 2009 |
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Husbands, wives or significant others who use guns in domestic battles may have to hand over their weapons to police under a change in state domestic violence laws that becomes effective Oct. 1.
When a judge issues a temporary protective order, the revised law gives her authority to order the abuser to surrender his weapons, if he used or threatened to use a weapon against the victim, or threatened or caused serious bodily harm to her. A temporary protective order is effective for one week, and may be issued on the victim’s testimony, without the accused abuser being in court.
A hearing with both the accused abuser and his accuser will be held before the judge decides whether to issue a final protective order, which is effective for up to one year.
If a judge issues a final protective order, the revised law requires her to order the abuser to surrender any guns he has to the police or sheriff’s department, and not to possess any firearms while the protective order is in effect.
The abuser will get his guns back after the protective order expires unless the order is extended or he owned the guns illegally.
Maryland’s law change follows earlier actions by Congress, which enacted the Protective Order Gun Ban in 1994, prohibiting a person who has a protective order against him from possessing a firearm. Two years later, Congress passed the Domestic Violence Misdemeanor Gun Ban, prohibiting anyone convicted of a misdemeanor crime of domestic violence or child abuse from buying or possessing a gun.
The Supreme Court ruled earlier this year that the federal law applies to general misdemeanors, such as battery, committed against a spouse, child or other relative. The case involved a West Virginia man who pleaded guilty in 1993 to battery against his then-wife. More than 10 years later, he was arrested when police responded to a 911 call for domestic assault. The officers found an unloaded Winchester rifle under the bed.
The man’s lawyers argued that the federal gun possession ban did not apply because the earlier charge was for general battery, not specifically domestic violence, although it was committed against his wife. Wrong, said the Supreme Court. The court said the federal law applied because Congress intended to prohibit anyone convicted of domestic violence from owning a gun, whether the state called the crime domestic violence or battery.
How important is it to try to keep guns away from domestic abusers? A 2004 analysis of murders by the Violence Policy Center showed that nearly three times as many women were murdered by husbands or intimate acquaintances as were killed by strangers. A study of abused women by the Johns Hopkins University Center for Gun Policy and Research showed that when the abuser owned a gun, the risk that he would murder his wife or girlfriend was five times greater than if he did not own a gun.
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Donna Engle is an attorney in Westminster. She can be reached at denglelaw@gmail.com. Her column, which provides legal information but not legal advice, appears every other Sunday in Life & Times.
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