Thread by @reveal

Bipartisan language in the newly introduced Senate version of the Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act of 2022 would give expanded powers to state and local prosecutors to pursue domestic abusers who possess firearms illegally.

🧵 Here’s how: revealnews.org/article/how-th…

A 2021 Reveal investigation found that domestic violence gun homicides surged 58% over the last decade.

Many of those victims were killed by abusers who were prohibited from having guns. revealnews.org/article/gun-la…

The pandemic has been an especially lethal period for abuse victims: Gun homicides involving intimate partners rose a stunning 25% in 2020 compared with the previous year, to the highest level in almost three decades. bit.ly/gunlaws-dv

Federal law bars felons and some people convicted of misdemeanor domestic violence from possessing firearms.

But state and local law enforcement authorities can’t enforce those federal laws, and federal prosecutors haven’t made them a priority. revealnews.org/article/how-th…

That means even egregious cases frequently fall through the cracks.

Many states also forbid convicted abusers from possessing firearms, but their laws can be substantially weaker than the federal statutes. revealnews.org/article/how-th…

And because federal law and most state statutes don’t address how to retrieve weapons from people who aren’t legally permitted to have them, gun bans are largely enforced on an honor system that relies on abusers to disarm themselves. revealnews.org/article/how-th…

The new #VAWA bill, introduced in the Senate, overcomes the jurisdictional roadblocks by allowing the Department of Justice to appoint state, local, territorial and tribal prosecutors to serve as special assistant U.S. attorneys with the power to enforce federal firearms laws.

This could be particularly important in at least 20 states that either don’t bar people convicted of misdemeanor domestic violence from possessing guns or have laws that are weaker than the federal bans. revealnews.org/article/how-th…

The bill would also expand @ATFHQ’s reach by allowing the attorney general to deputize local and state law enforcement officers to act as ATF agents to investigate abusers who violate federal gun laws. revealnews.org/article/how-th…

➡️ Even though guns are used to commit two-thirds of intimate partner homicides, the ATF told Reveal that it doesn’t have a single agent focusing exclusively on domestic violence.

The ATF also has about the same number of employees as it did a decade ago. revealnews.org/article/how-th…

The bill also instructs the Justice Department to:

- Identify at least 75 jurisdictions where gun-related domestic violence is soaring and local authorities lack resources
- Establish contacts in every U.S. attorney’s office and ATF field office to handle requests for assistance

The new bill still has some gaps:

- The “boyfriend loophole” is not addressed. It allows people convicted of misdemeanor domestic violence against dating partners to keep their guns.

By contrast, a current or former spouse loses their gun rights under the federal law.

- Neither the Senate nor House bill, which passed last year, specifies how convicted felons and abusers must relinquish their firearms or how police, prosecutors and courts should go about removing guns from offenders who are prohibited from having them. revealnews.org/article/how-th…

Advocates are hopeful that the 2022 update will break through the logjam.

The new bill has 11 Republican co-sponsors, a rare show of bipartisanship on firearms issues, and echoes the House version in key ways. revealnews.org/article/how-th…

“After (Reveal’s) investigation, there was no denying it anymore,” said @CAPActionGVP’s Marissa Edmund. The project “100% lit a fire for members of Congress.”

Read more from @JenniferGollan: revealnews.org/article/how-th…