FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: MELINDA SHELTON, 767; DIANE MINOR, x773

NOW LEADERS FIGHT TO KEEP GUNS AWAY FROM BATTERERS

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 1997

NOW leaders today warned Congress not to gut the Domestic Violence Offender Gun ban by exempting police officers, government employees and members of military from the ban.

"No one should argue for an abuser's right to carry a gun, no matter what job they have," said NOW Action Vice President Rosemary Dempsey. "Responsibility for maintaining public safety includes the spouses and children of police officers, government employees and members of the military."

The bill, passed in 1996, prohibits people convicted of domestic violence misdemeanors from buying or possessing guns. However, a proposed change would make the law apply only to those batterers and child abusers convicted after the date of its passage, last Sept. 30.

"The National Rifle Association is clearly at work behind the scenes here, using some law enforcement officials as decoys for promoting their anti-gun control agenda," Dempsey said. "Progressive police departments in major cities like Baltimore and Chicago are enforcing the gun ban as part of full-scale programs to reduce domestic violence on the force and in their communities. A badge is not a batterer's shield, and a convicted abuser should not get special treatment."