About ten years ago, Adriana filed her first protection order against her ex-husband. She explained he’d started his abusive pattern by pushing and shoving her, but the violence soon escalated.
“There was an occasion where he did pull a pocket knife on my neck,” she said. “That was a big deal.”
Adriana, who we’re only identifying by her first name because of safety concerns, said her abuser also hit her, and threatened her with his guns. But with the temporary protection order, he had to give up those firearms to a friend.
“Having access to guns only makes them more dangerous, in my opinion. That is very scary,” she said.
Adriana felt much safer knowing that her ex-husband didn’t have access to firearms – but a case before the U.S. Supreme Court threatens to overturn the legal principle that protected her.
In Nov. 2023, they heard arguments in a case seeking to overturn a federal law that prohibits domestic abusers from possessing guns while they’re under a protection order. The case, United States v. Rahimi, seeks to evaluate those protections under a new constitutional standard adopted by the Supreme Court in 2022, when justices in the right-wing majority ruled that any gun regulations have to correspond with legislation from the time of the country’s founding, in the 18th century.
During oral arguments, the justices seemed skeptical of the idea they should nullify those protections. But advocates say if they do, it could have a drastic impact on Nevada – where rates of domestic violence are some of the highest in the country.
Kristen Kennedy runs the Domestic Violence Resource Center in Reno. The center offers resources for survivors, like help with filing protection orders in court and emergency housing when they need to flee.
“We have a food pantry, we have a diaper bank, we have hygiene items and clothing,” she explained on a recent afternoon in the center’s office on Vassar St. “When somebody’s fleeing a situation, an abusive situation, they’re often not thinking to grab their toothbrush or anything else.”
Kennedy is alarmed by the possibility that the Supreme Court may overturn prohibitions on firearms ownership for domestic abusers, because she said guns pose a grave threat to victims.
“In Washoe County in 2023, three women were murdered by firearm in domestic violence situations,” she said. “It’s a critical issue.”
Tracy Geraghty, who helps the center’s clients fill out court paperwork for temporary protection orders, explained the process begins in civil court. It becomes a criminal matter if an abuser is caught violating the terms of the order.
“If an incident occurs, and it’s a violation of the order, then the applicant needs to report that to law enforcement,” she said. “Some people respect a court order, and some people don’t.”
According to Geraghty, any type of measure designed to keep survivors safe will help. But the current system leaves the onus on them to make sure it works as intended.
“Nobody’s knocking at these people’s doors going, ‘We know you have a protection order against you, I need to search your home to see if you’re in possession of a firearm,’ ” she said.
According to Elizabeth Abdur-Raheem with the Nevada Coalition to End Domestic and Sexual Violence, when people have more access to firearms, deadly results through firearms become more likely. That’s partly because guns allow people to act impulsively.
“It is hard to deescalate a situation once a firearm is involved,” she explained.
Abdur-Raheem’s organization is about to release a new statewide homicide report for 2023. For the first time, they went case-by-case, trying to identify all the fatal domestic violence encounters across the state. They combed media reports and reached out to partner organizations, looking for data.
The results were sobering.
“In the past year in Nevada, there were 72 total deaths that happened, and 50 incidents,” she said. “In this case, I think what’s most important for us to notice is that 56 of them happened with use of a firearm.”
According to a review of national data by the nonprofit Violence Policy Center, Nevada ranked in the top 10 states for rates of women killed by men in 23 of the last 25 years. Ninety-two percent of female murder victims knew their killers – and more than half were killed by an intimate partner.
According to Brian Sooudi with the Reno City Attorney’s Office, legal protections for victims can be hard to navigate, because of differences between state and federal laws.
“The U.S. Supreme Court needs to figure all this out,” he said. “When does the federal prohibition kick in? Does it kick in the instant that the [temporary protection order] is granted? Or does it kick in once a person violates such an order criminally?”
The Supreme Court case stems from the conviction of Texas resident Zackey Rahimi, who violated a protection order after he was accused of assaulting his ex-girlfriend.
The order prohibited him from possessing guns, but that didn’t stop Rahimi from getting involved in five separate shootings. He was convicted in federal court, but an appeals court judge decided the law banning Rahimi from having guns was unconstitutional under the Supreme Court’s new historical standards.
Sooudi said depending on how they rule, justices could also overturn state-level restrictions on domestic abusers accessing firearms.
“It may trigger our legislature in 2025 to have to amend some of our state law, to come into compliance. We’ll have to wait and see,” he said.
Meanwhile, Adriana said guns should be taken away from people who commit domestic violence. If her abuser hadn’t had his guns taken away, she would’ve had to leave town.
“Why would we want to have in our community, access, or give people access to guns – people who are showing signs of already not being able to control themselves, because they’re being abusive to other people?” she said.
If you or someone you know is being affected by domestic violence, the Domestic Violence Resource Center operates a 24-hour hotline at 775-329-4150.
