Appeals court rules government can’t stop people with domestic violence restraining orders from owning guns

People with domestic violence restraining orders have a constitutional right to own firearms, a federal appeals court ruled Thursday. 

The three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of appeals ruled Thursday that banning people under domestic violence restraining orders from owning firearms “embodies salutary policy goals meant to protect vulnerable people in our society.” 

Police in Texas found a rifle and a pistol at the home of a man who was the subject of a civil protective order that banned him from harassing, stalking or threatening his ex-girlfriend and their child. The order also banned him from having guns.

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