Editor s note: This story was originally published by The Trace, a nonprofit newsroom which covers guns in America, in partnership with The 19th, a nonprofit newsroom reporting on gender, politics and policy.
In 13 states, a single judge is entrusted to decide whether the subject of a temporary order of protection is allowed to have firearms. The Trace wanted to understand how those decisions are made and whether they are aligned with evidence that the person who got the order is in danger of being harmed with a gun.
We looked at domestic protection orders in four states: Michigan, Arizona, New Hampshire, and South Dakota. We found that a person’s chances of getting a firearms restriction placed on their abuser are seldom tied to whether that person has threatened them with a gun. The decision is more likely to depend on which county they live in and which judge hears their case. Most states give judges wide leeway to make these decisions, offering little guidance about when gu