The rights of domestic violence perpetrators to own guns should not take precedence over the rights of victims to be safe. Fortunately, the Supreme Court has affirmed this basic principle in its holding in United States v. Rahimi. 2024 WL 3074728 (U.S. 2024). In doing so, it took a crucial step in protecting victims of intimate partner violence.

In Rahimi, the Supreme Court affirmed the constitutionality of disarming individuals subject to domestic violence restraining orders. In this landmark ruling, the court reversed the decision of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, which held that the government cannot prevent an abusive individual subject to a domestic violence protective order from possessing a deadly firearm.