Domestic Violence and the Home-Centric Second Amendment

The most prominent line-drawing debate in Second Amendment law and scholarship is whether and to what degree the right to keep and bear arms extends outside the home. Inside the home, the right is thought to be strongest, as private interests are at their apex and governmental interests are correspondingly weaker. But an uncritical acceptance of this home-centric Second Amendment is not well-equipped to account for the intersection between guns and domestic violence (DV). For women in particular, domestic violence in the home is a more significant threat than assault by a stranger, and studies have shown that the availability of a firearm in the home can exacerbate the already-significant risk that such violence ends in murder.

The reality of armed DV poses a challenge for the home-bound or home-centric right to keep and bear arms, and for Second Amendment law and scholarship more generally.