In February of this year, an important component of federal law designed to protect victims of abuse, the 1994 Violence Against Women Act (VAWA), expired in the midst of the government shutdown. Now, a reauthorization bill has passed the House but is expected to be dead-on-arrival in the Senate, due to National Rifle Association opposition.

VAWA was passed in 1994 with large bipartisan majorities in both houses of Congress, and was renewed in 2000, 2005, and 2013. The law provides approximately $500 million of federal funding each year to programs which protect victims of domestic violence, including legal assistance, protections against homelessness, rape crisis centers and hotlines, and community violence prevention programs. It also introduced statutory components such as nationally-enforceable restraining orders, federal rape shield laws, and immigration protections for asylum applicants who are victims of domestic violence. Although the title of VAWA refers to women, the law’s text is gender-neutral and provides support to both female and male victims of domestic violence.

The 2019 VAWA reauthorization bill (H.R.1585) includes several new components which are strongly opposed by some Republicans, although 33 House Republicans joined House Democrats in voting for its passage in April. Most controversially, the new bill includes a provision which prohibits the purchase of firearms by individuals convicted of stalking and domestic abuse, which are misdemeanor crimes.

This move is strongly opposed by the National Rifle Association, which has substantial influence in the Senate. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is considered unlikely to bring VAWA to a vote in the higher chamber. Republicans accuse Democrats of using VAWA to advance a partisan gun control agenda which does not help victims, while Democrats claim that the House bill is intended to close a loophole in existing laws.

Domestic violence and gun control advocates believe that the House’s VAWA reauthorization addresses a little-mentioned component of the mass shooting epidemic: many mass-shooters are either victims or perpetrators of domestic violence.

Author and activist Rachel Louise Snyder, who wrote the book “No Visible Bruises: What We Don’t Know About Domestic Violence Can Kill Us,” points out that Charles Whitman, the shooter in the 1966 University of Texas tower shooting, and Adam Lanza, the shooter at Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012, began their rampages by killing family members.

This is very common: 54% of mass shootings in the United States (shootings with four or more victims) follow this pattern. Numerous other infamous shooters like Dylann Roof, the shooter at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in 2015, grew up in a home with abusive caregivers. According to research reported by the Giffords Law Center, if a firearm is present in a home during a domestic violence incident, 66% of abusers will use the gun to threaten or harm their victim. Additionally, the presence of a firearm makes it more likely that serious injury or death will occur during a domestic violence incident, even when other weapons, such as knives, are available. Women in the United States are 21 times more likely to be killed with a gun than women in other high-income countries.

What’s next for VAWA? For now, Senate Republicans plan to continue funding for VAWA programs through budgetary measures, without passing a formal reauthorization of the law. The Senate is also drafting a “clean” version of the reauthorization, which does not include new statutes such as firearm protections. VAWA programs are currently funded through the end of the fiscal year.



