Study: Laws forcing domestic abusers to surrender guns linked to fewer homicides

By Andrew Shepperson

Laws requiring people convicted of domestic violence or those under domestic violence restraining orders to surrender their guns has been linked to lower rates of domestic homicide, a new study suggests.
The study, conducted by researchers at five different institutions and published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, took a look at intimate-partner homicide rates from 1991 to 2015 and concluded they are on average 9.7 percent lower in states with gun-surrender domestic violence laws when compared to states without those laws. The study also found firearm-related, intimate-partner homicide rates to be 14 percent lower in states with gun-relinquishment laws.
The researchers noted that an overwhelming majority of domestic violence victims are female and around half of intimate-partner homicides are committed with firearms, Reuters reported in a summary of the study. More than 1,800 people are killed in intimate-partner homicides every year in the U.S.
Dr. Michael Siegel of the Boston University School of Public Health, a senior author on the study, argued that even though federal law prohibits domestic abusers from possessing guns, states can better enforce those regulations if such laws exist at the state-level as well.
Siegel also noted that federal law does not require domestic violence offenders to surrender firearms already in their possession. This

Source: Guns.com