With gun rights under increasing scrutiny, the U.S. Supreme Court has acted decisively to signal that such rights are not absolute. In a 6-2 decision Monday, the court upheld that those convicted of reckless misdemeanor domestic violence can be banned from owning firearms.
The court previously had upheld the ban for intentional acts of violence. But, as anti-domestic violence advocates have argued, the careless disregard for the safety of a significant other is all too often a part of the continuum that can lead to serious injury and even death.
The ruling is important in two respects: It puts abusers on notice that simply claiming the violent act was unintentional will not lessen the consequences. This is only right, since for the victim the injury is the same no matter what the abuser's state of mind was at the moment. But of equal significance is the intent by a clear majority of the court to reinforce the idea that the Second Amendment right to bear arms has boundaries, as do all constitutional rights.
Among the eight justices, only Justices Clarence Thomas and Sonia Sotomayor dissented, and only Thomas wrote a dissent that defended the rights of abusers to keep their firearms. In a dismissive fashion, Thomas wrote that a simple misdemeanor should not be enough to deprive someone of a constitutional right. Thomas is wrong on that point. It is only recently that domestic violence has been treated with the gravity it deserves by the criminal justice system.
In the past, even abuses that resulted in serious injuries were pleaded down to misdemeanors. And the bar for felonies was high. Until 2006, when the law was changed, a husband in Minnesota who attempted to strangle his wife typically faced a misdemeanor charge.
Incredibly, the two Maine petitioners in the Supreme Court case attempted to argue that because their violence was not intentional, it should not result in lost gun rights.
Constitutional rights should carry some responsibilities. Those who prize their ability to own deadly weapons should be prepared to demonstrate that they can be responsible. Assaulting a partner or immediate family member should cause the attacker to fail that test.
