SAN ANTONIO — Legislation pre-filed by State Sen. Roland Gutierrez proposes to create “extreme risk” protective orders that would temporarily take guns away from those who pose a danger to themselves or others.
Senate Bill 144, if passed, would require applicants of extreme protective orders to provide detailed accounts of dangerous behavior displayed by the person in question, including the respondent’s use of firearms.
Family Violence and Prevention Services Staff Attorney Luis Trevino recognizes the potential benefits of the bill that could protect domestic violence survivors.
“In a family violence protective the victim has to show to the judge and the judge has to find that there’s a history or pattern of domestic violence and that there’s a probability of future family violence,” Trevino said. “In this new protective order, which is being proposed, all that has to be shown is that there’s clear and convincing evidence that this person who’s being accused is at high risk of hurting another person or him or herself with firearms.”
A Texas federal judge recently ruled that disarming people under protective orders is unconstitutional and in violation of the Second Amendment.
Trevino anticipates there will be an appeal and future legal challenges. But as the ruling stands now, he believes this could pave the way for more challenges when filing protective orders.
“We’re going to have to file these high-risk protective orders as the bill calls it in conjunction with our family violence protective orders under the family code to be able to have these guns removed and not violate the Constitution as the judge has ruled it,” Trevino said.
He noted Family Violence Prevention Services already experiences barriers in the courts related to arguing for protective orders.
“We do see that pushback a lot by attorneys and even pro se respondents themselves that show up to court and say hey I own a small business I need to have my gun but that same gun they’ve used to threaten our clients,” Trevino said.
SAPD officers responded to 22 domestic violence homicides in 2021, down from 30 the year before, according to the latest data published by the Joint City County Collaborative Commission on Domestic Violence.
The Bexar County District Attorney’s Office experienced a 23% increase of protective order filings.
Patricia Castillo, executive director of the P.E.A.C.E Initiative (Putting an End to Abuse Through Community Efforts), supports the concept of SB 144.
“Unfortunately what usually happens if those weapons aren’t removed, someone ends up dead,” Castillo said.
Castillo is looking forward to the 2023 legislative session where domestic violence-related bills will be introduced. She stresses the importance of having the entire community work together in reducing family violence in San Antonio and the surrounding area. Castillo wants one of the focuses to be on stopping repeat offenders.
“Repeat offenders do a lot of damage in terms of domestic violence and those are the ones that we’ve got to monitor closely, we’ve got to arrest consistently, and we’ve got to put high bonds on them, so they don’t get easily out of jail.”