The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday ruled to uphold a federal ban on domestic abusers owning guns.
In an 8-1 decision, the Supreme Court ruled that "when an individual has been found by a court to pose a credible threat to the physical safety of another, that individual may be temporarily disarmed consistent with the Second Amendment."
Scripps News spoke with Kate Ranta, a survivor of domestic abuse who has testified on Capitol Hill about domestic violence and whose experience was one of the dozens filed with the court as briefs in support of continued gun restrictions.
Ranta's then-husband shot and injured her and her father during a confrontation that took place in front of Ranta's young son William.
"I was in the middle of divorce proceedings from my abusive ex-husband," Ranta said. "Things were stalling. He ambushed us — my father and me — at my apartment. He had stalked me there. He opened fire and shot me twice and my father twice in front of my then 4-year-old son."
Since then, Ranta has spent years pushing for awareness of domestic and gun violence.
"I keep saying that it's hard to celebrate in a sense, because I just feel that they did their job. This was common sense," Ranta said of Friday's ruling.
"It was appalling in the first place that it even made it to the Supreme Court," Ranta said. "I've been in this space advocating and being an activist around domestic and gun violence for over a decade now, and the fact that a case like this even made it to the Supreme Court in the first place really was very, very terrifying. But I feel relieved and I'm glad that there were people there in November — people like myself and my son and other activists and advocates and survivors — that stood in front of the Supreme Court and shared our stories and yelled that this can't happen. I want to think that we had something to do with that."
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Supreme Court upholds ban on domestic abusers owning guns
