Four ways an individual can lose their right to own a gun:
1. Transporting weapons across state lines in violation of that state's gun laws
2. Drug use (but alcohol use is fine).
3. Dishonorable discharge from the military
4. Felony conviction - even for non-violent felonies (like 3-strike drug laws)
Statistics on domestic violence
1 in 3 women and 1 in 4 men have been victims of [some form of] physical violence by an intimate partner within their lifetime.
1 in 4 women and 1 in 7 men have been victims of severe physical violence by an intimate partner in their lifetime.
1 in 7 women and 1 in 18 men have been stalked by an intimate partner during their lifetime to the point in which they felt very fearful or believed that they or someone close to them would be harmed or killed.
1 in 15 children are exposed to intimate partner violence each year, and 90% of these children are eyewitnesses to this violence
With all of that domestic violence going on, how many cases result in felony convictions?
The majority of domestic violence cases, regardless of the seriousness of the assault, are charged as or pleaded down to misdemeanors. It can be difficult to find hard statistics on this, but there are some:
The 2010 Domestic Violence Court Watch Report, put together by nonprofit Independent Advocates, states that, of the 1,916 misdemeanor domestic violence cases in Toledo Municipal Court last year, only 13 percent resulted in convictions; 82 percent were dismissed or amended to lesser charges, according to the report. Five percent of cases were pending.
From
a sample of 517 cases of domestic violence:
>> Only 1 in 4 case are reported to the police
>> Of the 130 incidents that are reported, the police did not even show up to investigate 27 of them
>> In the 103 cases police responded, only 3 in 5 cases resulted in an arrest (even in states with mandatory arrest requirements!)
>> Of the 61 who are arrested, 1 of 3 are never charged/prosecuted
>> Less than half of those charged/prosecuted are convicted
>> And even if convicted, less than half of those spend even a single day in jail
"Of those cases that are prosecuted,
many are charged or plead down to misdemeanors even though the conduct constituted a felony. When prosecutors do go forward, the final disposition is most often a period of probation. A growing number of defendants must also complete a batterer's treatment program as a condition of probation. Only a small percentage of domestic violence offenders are sentenced to incarceration" (Hanna, 1998).
What does this all mean?
It means that this:
Violent crime is violent crime.
is not accurate. It means that this:
So serious violence is covered anyway. It is only the bullshit misdemeanor charges where it matters at all.
is not accurate.
It means that the federal Lautenberg Amendment was necessary, especially because:
The presence of a gun in a domestic violence situation increases the risk of homicide by 500%
And if that is not enough for you:
A study of intimate partner homicides found that 20% of victims were not the intimate partners themselves, but family members, friends, neighbors, persons who intervened, law enforcement responders, or bystanders.
And of course, we still have this kind of attitude in law enforcement and elsewhere:
When asked how Carroll County could improve its handling of domestic violence cases, [Sheriff of Carroll County Arkansas] Grudek said he was unconvinced that a more proactive response — like setting high bail for serial abusers, or requiring GPS tracking for offenders who violate restraining orders — would make a substantial difference.
“The question you’re asking me is what’s wrong with the courts,” he said. “I’m asking you, what’s wrong with the women?”
I swear I thought the same thing as I was typing "boyfriend loophole" 
Elisabeth Anne "Betty" Broderick (born November 7, 1947) is an American former suburban housewife convicted of the November 5, 1989 murders[1] of her ex-husband, Daniel T. Broderick III, and his second wife, Linda (Kolkena) Broderick. At a second trial on December 11, 1991, she was convicted of two counts of second-degree murder and later sentenced to 32-years-to-life in prison. The case received extensive media attention and was extremely controversial.
