Insights on the Impact of Firearm Laws on Intimate Partner Violence Outcomes

Speakers discuss their research on the relationship between state domestic violence-related firearm laws and rates of intimate partner homicide across all 50 states from 1991-2015. State laws prohibiting individuals subject to domestic violence-related restraining orders from possessing firearms and requiring them to relinquish firearms already in their possession resulted in lower firearm-related intimate partner homicide rates. To be effective in protecting public safety, policy makers should ensure their state laws include enforcement provisions to guarantee that people prohibited from possessing firearms do not have access to weapons.