Taking guns out of the hands of domestic abusers, especially when they’re law enforcement

As published on al.com

Victims of officer involved domestic violence live with the unrelenting fear and anxiety of knowing their abuser always carries a gun on his hip. They go to sleep and wake up knowing their partner has instant access to a gun. Ever mindful of the deadly weapon, their traumatized response is often to comply and appease the person who wields his gun as a method to control, terrorize and intimidate his partner. Victims also know if they call the police, officers who adhere to “the blue wall of silence " will give the abusive cop the benefit of the doubt.

On June 4, NBC News aired its report “The state of Alabama took his gun away. When authorities gave it back, he shot and killed his wife.” According to their coverage, two weeks before Jason McIntosh murdered Megan Montgomery on December 1, 2019, The Alabama Law Enforcement Agency (ALEA) returned McIntosh’s gun. ALEA justified their decision saying there was nothing stated in the restraining order to prevent them from doing so. ALEA also had in their possession the videotape of McIntosh waving that same gun and threatening to kill Megan, himself, as well as fantasizing about committing mass murder. Not only did ALEA not bother to notify Megan or her family of their actions, they also didn’t warn the public about their endangerment.

Federal and Alabama state law prohibits possession of a gun by anyone convicted of a domestic violence offense or anyone who has a protection order against him, but there’s no state law or procedures to enforce relinquishing firearms or database to track abusers.

Access to guns makes it five times more likely an abusive partner will kill his female victim, and more than half of women murdered with guns are killed by family members or intimate partners, who are more likely to use a firearm than all other means combined, according to the American Journal of Public Health. FBI data from 2015 found 51% of female homicide victims were killed by partners: 58% of these victims with firearms.

The NBC News report noted the recent rise in gun violence and reported in 2019 one woman was killed by an intimate partner every nine hours. In more than half the mass shootings where four or more people were killed, the shooter killed an intimate partner, and one study found that nearly a third of mass shooters had a history of domestic violence, according to an analysis by April Zeoli and Jennifer Paruk in Criminology and Public Policy.

Guns never belong in the hands of abusive partners, but legal loopholes, inadequate enforcement, lack of officer education about domestic violence, a gun worshipping culture, especially in Alabama, and the code of blue protecting officers from accountability all complicate the issue of taking guns out of the hands of these domestic abusers.

Nine months before her death, in February 2019 during a struggle with McIntosh over his gun, Megan was shot in the arm, shattering her bone. The gun was confiscated by ALEA. She became one of the one million survivors who’ve actually been shot or shot at by their abusers. Approximately 4.5 million American women alive today have been threatened by intimate partners with firearms, according to the National Coalition of Domestic Violence.

After being shot in arm, Megan moved out and filed a request for restraining order. The judge issued a mutual restraining order. While ALEA investigated the incident, McIntosh resigned from the Hoover Police Department during an internal affairs investigation. The Bessemer Cut-off District Attorney ruled the February shooting incident an accident and no charges were filed against McIntosh or Megan.

Enforcing the federal law that prohibits any person subject to a qualifying order of protection from possessing firearms and ammunition and other existing laws is the first step in keeping guns out of the hands of dangerous people. Working across disciplines and organizations within the community is also part of a holistic approach to this problem, as well as making sure each police department has a clear policy on how to respond to domestic violence and a protocol to disarm threatening individuals.

As Allison Dearing executive director of One Place in Birmingham said at the press conference after McIntosh’s plea bargain, “It is high time for people to stop expecting victims of domestic violence to keep themselves safe. It’s not their responsibility It’s on the system that exists — law enforcement, the courts, prosecution and healthcare.”

Today, 29 states require weapons be taken away from abusers who were subjects of protective orders. In 2013, a domestic abuser killed four people in LaFourche Parish, Louisiana. The Sherriff’s Department responded to this tragedy by enacting a model response that included a community wide effort to keep guns out of the hands of abusers. The ATF partnered with them to remove the firearms. Since the 2014 law prohibiting possession of firearms by certain domestic violence offenders or those subject to a protection order took effect in Louisiana, there have been no domestic violence homicides by anyone prohibited from possessing a gun in Lafourche Parish.

In 2018 legislation was also passed in Louisiana mandating those convicted of domestic abuse or who have an active protective order to turn over their firearms. Gun dealers are required to notify local authorities if someone with a protective order tries to buy a gun and they will go to jail if they knowingly sell a gun to someone with a protective order against him. Louisiana also recently passed a law that enforces the process of surrendering firearms that involves community policing, a strong partnership with a victim services provider, and tough enforcement of firearms prohibitors, providing a blueprint for other states.

Nine months after ALEA confiscated McIntosh’s gun away, despite pending domestic violence charges and an active protective order, ALEA gave the gun back to McIntosh who’d texted them repeatedly that he needed his gun to find a private security job. ALEA told NBC News that he owned the gun, the February investigation into the time Megan was shot in the arm was closed, and they had no right to keep his property.

When Megan moved into her own apartment in September 2019, she wrote, “I’m going to live my life, he’s not going to run me out of town where my family and friends are. No matter where I move, he will find me, with all his connections with the police. His buddies will help him find me.”

She had no way of knowing Alabama Law Enforcement Agency (ALEA) would provide her husband with the murder weapon.

Lanier Isom, of Birmingham, is co-author of Lilly Ledbetter’s memoir “Grace and Grit: How I Won My Fight at Goodyear and Beyond”