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Do People Subject to Domestic Abuse Orders Have the Right to Be Armed? [1]

['Adam Liptak', 'More About Adam Liptak']

Date: 2023-06-12  

Zackey Rahimi, a drug dealer in Texas with a history of armed violence, is “hardly a model citizen,” a federal appeals court judge wrote in March, with considerable understatement. But the court vacated Mr. Rahimi’s conviction under a federal law that makes it a crime for people subject to domestic-violence orders to possess guns, ruling that the law violated the Second Amendment.

Next week, the Supreme Court is set to consider whether to hear an appeal of that decision, which applied a history-based test to rule that the government was powerless to disarm Mr. Rahimi under the domestic-violence law. The chances that the justices will agree to hear the case are good.

The case started in 2019, when Mr. Rahimi assaulted his girlfriend and threatened to shoot her if she told anyone, leading her to obtain a restraining order. The order suspended Mr. Rahimi’s handgun license and prohibited him from possessing firearms.

Mr. Rahimi defied the order in flagrant fashion, according to court records.

He threatened a different woman with a gun, leading to charges of assault with a deadly weapon. Then, in the space of two months, he opened fire in public five times.

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[1] Url: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/12/us/supreme-court-guns-domestic-violence-orders.html

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