Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives regarding the relationships among firearm violence, misogyny, and violence against women, and reaffirming the importance of preventing individuals with a history of violence against women from accessing a firearm.

Bill: 118-hres-1541
Sponsor: full_name: Rep. Moore, Gwen [D-WI-4]
Introduced: 2024-10-11
Policy area: Crime and Law Enforcement
Latest action: action_date: 2024-10-11
text: Referred to the House Committee on the Judiciary.

Summaries:
action_date: 2024-10-11
action_desc: Introduced in House
text: <p>This resolution acknowledges the need for legislation to better prevent individuals with a history of violence against women from purchasing or possessing a firearm.</p><p>The resolution&nbsp;also supports further research into the relationships among misogyny, violence against women, and firearm violence.</p>

tv_txt: IV 118th CONGRESS 2d Session H. RES. 1541 IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES October 11, 2024 Ms. Moore of Wisconsin (for herself and Mrs. Dingell ) submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary RESOLUTION Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives regarding the relationships among firearm violence, misogyny, and violence against women, and reaffirming the importance of preventing individuals with a history of violence against women from accessing a firearm.

Whereas more than 1 in 3 women have experienced some form of intimate partner violence, including sexual violence, physical violence, or stalking, according to the National Domestic Violence Hotline; Whereas restricted access to reproductive justice places victims at greater risk of intimate partner violence, according to the National Women’s Law Center; Whereas the majority of intimate partner homicides follow incidents of physical violence against the victim; Whereas, between 1996 and 2020, 61 percent of female homicide victims were killed by an intimate partner, according to the Violence Policy Center; Whereas the U.S. National Plan to End Gender-Based Violence recognizes the importance of addressing firearm violence in intimate partner relationships in order to address and prevent gender-based violence; Whereas, in recent years, cases have come before the United States Supreme Court, including New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen, United States v. Rahimi, and Garland v. Cargill, questioning the constitutionality of existing gun safety measures, and demonstrating that the current Court is open to arguments that challenge long-guaranteed federal protections; Whereas, during the COVID–19 pandemic, domestic violence incidents rose nationally and globally, with this crisis disproportionately impacting women; Whereas, in February 2021, the National Commission on COVID–19 and Criminal Justice (NCCCJ) reported that incidents of domestic violence increased by 8.1 percent after lockdown orders were issued, police departments in communities across the country received higher numbers of calls related to domestic and family violence, and domestic violence homicides increased by 4 percent in 2020; Whereas American Indian/Alaska Native, Black, and Latina women are disproportionately killed by firearm-related homicides; Whereas, in the United States, approximately 4,500,000 women alive today have been threatened by an intimate partner with a firearm and almost 1,000,000 women alive today have been shot, or shot at, by an intimate partner, according to a 2020 analysis by Everytown for Gun Safety; Whereas, nearly half of all female homicide victims between 2003 and 2014 were killed by intimate partners, according to a 2017 study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association; Whereas homicide is the leading cause of death for pregnant people, with nearly 7 out of 10 pregnancy-associated homicides involving a firearm; Whereas homicide is the leading cause of death during pregnancy and postpartum, and deaths from homicides are higher than deaths from sepsis, hemorrhage, and hypertensive disorders, according to researchers from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health; Whereas, according to the Giffords’ Law Center, domestic abusers who have access to a firearm are 5 times more likely to kill their partners; Whereas domestic violence incidents involving a firearm are 12 times more likely to be fatal than assaults involving other weapons or bodily force, according to the Giffords’ Law Center; Whereas, an estimated three-quarters of intimate partner homicides in which there were multiple victims involved a firearm; Whereas a 2019 comparison of violent death rates among high-income countries indicates that women in the United States are 21 times more likely to be killed with a firearm than women in other high-income countries; Whereas 91.6 percent of all women killed by firearms in high-income countries in 2019 were killed in the United States; Whereas, of the 49 active shooter incidents reported by the Federal Bureau of Investigation in 2023, 98 percent involved a male shooter; Whereas, an analysis by the Gun Violence Archive between 2014 and 2019 found that domestic-violence mass shootings were associated with a greater fatality rate, and that in more than two-thirds (68.2 percent) of mass shootings analyzed, the perpetrator either killed family or intimate partners, or had a history of domestic violence; Whereas the perpetrator of the mass shooting in 2022 at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, that left 19 children and 2 adults killed had an extensive history of directing graphic and disturbing content at young women online, had threatened female co-workers, and had shot his grandmother, Celia Sally Gonzalez, and left her for dead prior to the mass shooting; Whereas, on May 26, 2021, 9 co-workers were killed at a rail yard in San Jose, California, by a man who had an alleged history of domestic violence; Whereas, on August 4, 2019, 9 people, including the gunman’s sister, were killed and 27 people were wounded when a shooter with a history of aggression against women, including an incident in which he was suspended from high school for possessing a list of female classmates he targeted for sexual violence, opened fire in Dayton, Ohio; Whereas, on November 5, 2017, 25 people were killed, including a pregnant woman, and 20 people were wounded in Sutherland Springs, Texas, by a shooter with an established history of domestic violence, including a prior conviction for domestic violence against his wife and stepson and a separate investigation into a rape complaint; Whereas, on December 6, 2016, a mother and her 3 children were shot and killed by a former dating partner who had been convicted of stalking a former girlfriend and arrested for battery against a household member, but continued to have access to firearms because of the “boyfriend loophole” wherein he was not married to the women he abused; Whereas, on June 12, 2016, 49 people were killed and 53 people were wounded when a shooter who was physically abusive toward his wife, including by allegedly beating her while she was pregnant, opened fire in the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida; Whereas, on February 25, 2016, a gunman shot and killed 3 people and wounded 14 people in Newton and Hesston, Kansas, after being served with a temporary protective order related to an abusive relationship; Whereas, on May 23, 2014, 6 people were killed and 14 people were wounded in Isla Vista, California, near the University of California, Santa Barbara, by being stabbed or shot by, or struck by the vehicle of, a self-identified member of the involuntary celibate, or incel, group of men who blame women for their sexual frustrations and advocate for violence against them, with the shooter uploading a video and publishing a manifesto detailing his hatred toward women; Whereas, on December 14, 2012, 26 students and teachers were killed in a mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School after a shooter who previously threatened the life of his mother shot and killed her at home; Whereas 11 percent of background check denials are attributed to a misdemeanor of domestic violence or a protective or restraining order, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics’ most recent report on background checks for firearm transfers; Whereas the so-called “Charleston Loophole”, which allows a licensed firearms dealer to sell a firearm to a person after 3 business days even if the background check is not complete, has allowed nearly 2,000 domestic abusers to acquire firearms over the past 2 years; Whereas a 2017 analysis of State firearm restrictions for perpetrators of domestic violence found that firearm prohibition laws that apply to dating partners are associated with a 16 percent reduction in intimate partner homicide; Whereas, under Federal law, domestic abusers are banned from possessing firearms if they are married to, or have a child with, their partners, but abusive dating partners are still not subject to final protective orders, and intimate partners are just as likely to be killed by their abusive dating partners as their abusive married spouses, according to Everytown for Gun Safety; and Whereas the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, signed into law by President Biden on June 25, 2022, was the first meaningful firearm violence prevention legislation enacted since the 1990s: Now, therefore, be it

That the House of Representatives— (1) acknowledges the need for legislation to better prevent individuals with a history of violence against women from purchasing or possessing a firearm; and (2) supports further research into the relationships among misogyny, violence against women, and firearm violence.