Kentucky judge strikes down a gun law that bans them in domestic violence cases

A previous version of this story incorrectly identified where Sherman Combs is from. He is from Cynthiana, a city in Harrison County, Kentucky.

Saying it violates the Second Amendment rights of gun owners, a federal judge in Kentucky has struck down the law that bans subjects of domestic violence orders from buying or possessing firearms.

Advocates for victims of domestic violence say the ruling will put them and others at risk.

“Research and data clearly demonstrate that domestic violence and guns are a lethal combination,” the Kentucky Coalition Against Domestic Violence said in a statement. “When people who commit domestic violence have access to firearms, the lethality risk increases by 1,000% for survivors, their families, and for community members.”

Jefferson County Attorney Mike O’Connell, whose office handles nearly 4,000 domestic violence cases a year, calls the ruling “a disservice to victims and public safety.”

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The Feb. 2 ruling by U.S. District Judge Danny Reeves resulted in the dismissal of a charge against Sherman Combs of Cynthiana for being a “prohibited person” in possession of a firearm – a .357 Magnum revolver – after a protective order was issued to his wife last June in Harrison County.

Reeve said the federal statute violates the Second Amendment, which says the “right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed."

He also cited a U.S. Supreme Court decision issued last year in which the court said a gun control law can only stand if it “aligns with the nation’s historical tradition of firearm regulation.”

The government argued that gun rights traditionally have been extended only to “law-abiding citizens,” but Reeves rejected that argument.

For now, the decision is only binding in the Eastern District of Kentucky, where Reeves sits but can be cited anywhere. (In Western Kentucky, on Feb. 7 a Mayfield man was sentenced to one year in prison for violating the same statute.)

Combs’ lawyer, Thomas Lyons, said he and his client were pleased with the decision.

He acknowledged it could increase the risk of harm for domestic violence victims but said “protection of constitutional rights often has societal costs.”

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The decision turned on last year’s high court ruling in a case brought by the New York State Rifle & Pistol Association in which the court – by a 6-3 vote – threw out a state law requiring gun owners to show a “special need for self-protection" to carry a concealed firearm outside their home.

The majority said the right to carry a firearm in public for self-defense is deeply rooted in history, and no other constitutional right requires a showing of “special need” to exercise it. Writing for the majority, Justice Clarence Thomas said gun restrictions are constitutional only if there is a tradition of such regulation in U.S. history.

Lyons noted the law forbidding subjects of protective orders from possessing guns is of “relative recent vintage” – it was enacted in 1994 – and that protective orders themselves date back only to 1976.

He also noted that protective orders are easy to obtain and usually issued by a judge after a short hearing, with no right to counsel or a jury trial.

They can remain in force for up to three years and be renewed, he said, depriving the subject of a constitutional right to self-defense for a long period.

Experts said decisions like Reeves’ were inevitable after the Supreme Court ruling; the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals, which covers Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi, issued a virtually identical opinion the same day Reeves ruled.

Protective orders do not guarantee a victim’s safety, of course. In the most dramatic example of that in Kentucky, after his 29-year-old ex-fiancee Amanda Ross took out a DVO against him following an assault, Steve Nunn, a former legislator, deputy cabinet secretary and son of ex-Gov. Louie B. Nunn, shot her dead in Lexington on Sept. 11, 2009. Nunn pleaded guilty to murder and is serving life without parole.

But studies, including one published in 2004 by the American Journal of Public Health, found that women who apply for 2-year DVOs experience less violence over the next 18 months, even if the order wasn’t granted.

The U.S. attorney’s office in Lexington declined to comment on Reeves’ opinion, though it has filed a notice it will appeal.

In addition to his indictment for possessing a firearm, Comb was charged with falsely telling a licensed dealer that had wasn’t subject to a protective order.

Reeves ruled that charge can stand.

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Judge strikes down gun ban in Kentucky second amendment ruling