Unrelinquished: When America’s gun laws fail abuse victims
In an exclusive investigation, Fault Lines and Reveal expose how US gun laws have failed to prevent domestic abusers from killing their partners.
In Tucson, Arizona, Jazmine Willock was murdered by her partner in 2018. He was prohibited from having a firearm because of a prior domestic violence conviction, but he carried one anyway.
In Jacksonville, Florida in 2017, Ashlee Rucker’s boyfriend killed her and seriously injured her sister, Lisa, using a gun. As a convicted felon, he should never have had one.
Under US law, people convicted of felonies and certain domestic violence crimes are barred from having guns. But these laws are largely unenforced. Offenders are rarely ordered to surrender their firearms, and domestic violence victims have paid the price.
Fault Lines follows Jennifer Gollan, a reporter with Reveal from the Center for Investigative Reporting, as she investigates gaps in the system that allow domestic abusers to keep their guns – with deadly consequences.