Half of states have no law requiring abusers to surrender firearms

Nearly half of all women murdered in the US are killed by a current or former intimate partner, and more than half of those intimate partner homicides involve a firearm. Abusers with access to firearms are five times more likely to kill their partners. Despite this, only 28 states have intimate partner violence misdemeanor firearms prohibitions, only 17 states require actual relinquishment of firearms upon conviction or restraining order, and only 5 states require that IPV misdemeanors be reported to the national crime database (NICS). In states without relinquishment laws, surrendering firearms after a protection order is on 'the honor system' — the abuser is told not to possess guns but no one verifies compliance or takes them. Additionally, most states do not extend firearms prohibitions to the critical gap period between a temporary/ex parte restraining order and a final order — the exact window when homicide risk is highest. This persists because firearms policy is politically contentious, the federal 'boyfriend loophole' was only partially closed by the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act in 2022, and local law enforcement lacks resources and protocols for proactive firearms retrieval.