Opinion ID: 215896
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Lautenberg Amendment

Text: The statutory provision under which Wyman and Booker were convicted, 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(9), was enacted in 1996 as part of the Omnibus Consolidated Appropriations Act of 1997. Known commonly as the Lautenberg Amendment to the Gun Control Act of 1968 (or simply the Lautenberg Amendment), the provision makes it unlawful for any person ... who has been convicted in any court of a misdemeanor crime of domestic violence, to ... possess in or affecting commerce, any firearm or ammunition. With its enactment of the Lautenberg Amendment, Congress recognized a problem of significant national concern in the combination of domestic violence and guns, and saw the existing law as insufficiently protective of its victims. See, e.g., 142 Cong. Rec. S8831 (daily ed. July 25, 1996) (statement of Sen. Lautenberg) (noting national statistics reporting 150,000 domestic violence incidents involving a gun each year). Previously, federal law prohibited possession of firearms only for individuals who had been convicted of a felony. United States v. Hartsock, 347 F.3d 1, 5 (1st Cir.2003). Congress concluded that the focus on felony convictions left guns in the hands of a large number of domestic abusers who were convicted of lesser crimes, often due to some combination of plea bargaining, [o]utdated or ineffective laws [that] treat domestic violence as a lesser offense, and lack of cooperation from victims. 142 Cong. Rec. S10379 (daily ed. Sept. 12, 1996) (statement of Sen. Feinstein). Through the Lautenberg Amendment, Congress sought to close this dangerous loophole, id., and establish[] a policy of zero tolerance when it comes to guns and domestic violence, 142 Cong. Rec. S8831 (daily ed. July 25, 1996) (statement of Sen. Lautenberg). The provision defines a misdemeanor crime of domestic violence to be an offense that (1) is a misdemeanor under Federal, State, or Tribal law, (2) has, as an element, the use or attempted use of physical force, or the threatened use of a deadly weapon, and (3) is committed by a current or former spouse, parent, or guardian of the victim, by a person with whom the victim shares a child in common, by a person who is cohabiting with or has cohabited with the victim as a spouse, parent, or guardian, or by a person similarly situated to a spouse, parent, or guardian of the victim. 18 U.S.C. § 921(a)(33)(A). The third of these requirements, specifying that the victim of the crime must have been a domestic intimate or similarly situated individual, need not be a formal element of the statute of offense. United States v. Hayes, 555 U.S. 415, 129 S.Ct. 1079, 1087, 172 L.Ed.2d 816 (2009). Instead, the government simply must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the prior offense was committed against a domestic intimate or similarly situated individual. Id. Thus, convictions under generic assault and battery statutes may qualify as misdemeanor crime[s] of domestic violence under § 922(g)(9).