Gun Control

The Domestic Violence Offender Gun Ban Survives Yet Another Attack

The Feminist Majority—the advocacy arm of the Feminist Majority Foundation, which publishes Ms.—together with the National Network to End Domestic Violence and its then director, Donna Edwards, played a pivotal role in passing the original Domestic Violence Offender Gun Ban at the heart of the Rahimi case, often referred to as “the Lautenberg Amendment,” after its sponsor, the late Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.), in 1996. After passage, feminists stood firmly against all attempts to gut the law, like the 1997 and 1999 attempts to exempt police officers and military service personnel from its coverage (which both failed). 

“The law prevented countless tragedies,” said Eleanor Smeal, president of the Feminist Majority. “It has saved the lives and harm of countless domestic violence survivors, most of whom are women.” Here’s to the feminist allies and advocates ensuring those days stay behind us.

In U.S. v. Rahimi, Domestic Violence Victims Live to Die Another Day

Friday morning, the Supreme Court ruled 8-1 that a law restricting firearms access for a narrow class of individuals subject to a specific kind of domestic violence restraining order does not violate the Second Amendment. The ruling is a “win” in much the same way the Court’s ruling in the mifepristone case FDA v. Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine earlier this month is a win: The Court did the “bare minimum” necessary to cling to the last vestiges of its legitimacy.

The threat posed by violent abusers like Zackey Rahimi might be temporarily disarmed today, but the threat posed by the Supreme Court’s patriarchal agenda remains a loaded weapon.

Keeping Score: State-Level Attacks on IVF and Abortion; Florida Parents Sue DeSantis Admin Over Book Bans; LGBTQ+ Women Face High Rates of Arrest

In every issue of Ms., we track research on our progress in the fight for equality, catalogue can’t-miss quotes from feminist voices and keep tabs on the feminist movement’s many milestones. We’re Keeping Score online, too—in this biweekly roundup.

This week: the Suoreme Court upholds access to mifepristone; Biden calls for assault weapons ban; state legislators and courts aim to tighten abortion bans and access to IVF; U.N. Women denounced the “gender-critical” movement; LGBTQ women face high rates of arrest; and more.

‘I Made the Best Decision for Me, My Body and My Family—Even My Unborn Child’: Georgia Rep. Shea Roberts’ Abortion Story

Amidst the current attacks in the United States on women and abortion, legislators are sharing their abortion stories, demonstrating the importance of safe and accessible abortion.

Georgia state Rep. Shea Roberts (D), a mother, attorney and small business owner, had an abortion over 15 years ago, back when Roe v. Wade was still in effect. After losing her first race for the statehouse in 2018 by 1,200 votes, she went on to win her race in 2020 and has since used her platform to share her abortion story. 

Men and Mass Shootings 25 Years After Columbine

Fortunately, there wasn’t a copycat mass shooting on Saturday to grotesquely mark the 25th anniversary of the Columbine massacre on April 20, 1999. But just as we can be certain there will be another solar eclipse, it’s only a matter of time before a hail of bullets will block out the sun for another community somewhere in America. What’s also true? Expect the shooter to be male, probably white.

Will Men Organize to End Gun Violence?

It’s been six years since the Valentine’s Day massacre of 14 students and three teachers at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., and gun violence remains as virulent a disease as ever, with regular new outbreaks in states across the country.

Like many debates about social conditions in the U.S., too many men remain silent, rarely weighing in, whether the issue is mass shootings, women’s reproductive rights or the climate emergency. What if, in this critically important election year, men organized themselves as men to speak out?

Who Runs the World? Women Mayors.

As St. Louis Mayor Tishaura Jones told Ms., “Men run for office to be somebody; women run to do something.”

More and more, women serving as mayors are part of the feminist frontline for advancing equal rights and are leaders on issues of concern to women voters. 

As seen throughout history, women mayors focus on feminist issues that many tend to overlook. Let’s bring intersectional issues to the forefront, and elect more women mayors to push forward our agenda.

U.S. Gun Culture Is Killing Our Children—Including My Own

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Six years ago, my beautiful boy was shot in the head at his best friend’s house. His friend’s father stored his three handguns and ammunition in a shoebox. We later learned that Ethan’s friend, who had just passed the NRA safety course and grew up with guns, had been regularly accessing and showing his teenage friends unsecured guns for over six months.

Ethan’s death was not an outlier. Over 4.6 million children in America live in a home with access to an unlocked or unsupervised firearm. And one in five children have handled guns in the home without their parent’s knowledge. As a result, eight children a day are killed or injured by unintentional shootings—a type of “family fire,” or a tragedy resulting from unsecured access to guns. Family fire killed Ethan, despite being entirely preventable. We can start to end this war by safely storing firearms and asking about unsecured guns in the home where our children go to play.

You Are ‘Killing my Generation’: A Gun Violence Survivor Takes On the Industry

This week is National Gun Violence Survivors Week, a time when we come together to honor and uplift survivors of gun violence. The gun industry must be held accountable for the nation of gun violence survivors they have created.

That’s why I, along with my fellow Students Demand Action volunteers across the country, are demanding that gun manufacturers take sensible steps to stop producing AR-15s and similar assault weapons with high-capacity magazines, prioritize safety over lethality in their products, and avoid partnering with untrustworthy dealers. We’re also calling on our colleges and universities to divest from the gun industry.

Murder-Suicides Are an Urgent Domestic Violence and Gun Control Issue

Theresa Cachuela, known as “Bunny Bontiti” to her more than 20,000 Instagram followers, was fatally shot on Dec. 22 in a murder-suicide committed by her husband, as her young daughter looked on, just days after a judge granted Cachuela a restraining order against him. Cachuela is one of hundreds of murder-suicide victims each year.

Highlighting the connection between guns and domestic violence is crucial, with the Supreme Court currently considering the case of United States v. Rahimi, a Second Amendment challenge to the government’s right to ban gun permits for those subject to domestic violence restraining orders.