No Visible Bruises: What We Don’t Know About Domestic Violence Can Kill Us

by Rachel Louise Snyder

Surprisingly, they found that the federal domestic violence misdemeanor firearm prohibition offered no reduction in such killings.15 Zeoli says there are likely multiple reasons for this, including a lack of enforcement, a lack of knowledge about the restrictions by local jurisdictions, and judges in some states with wide discretion when it comes to putting the prohibition in place. The laws can also be confusing. “If you have a law that says this person can’t have a firearm, but doesn’t follow up with who’s supposed to take it, how it’s removed, where it’s stored and who shoulders the cost … you’re leaving it to local jurisdictions to figure out what may work for them … this gives people who may not want to put the law in place a lot of discretion.”