It has been one week since Dallas County started enforcing a law banning the possession of fire arms by those convicted of a domestic violence misdemeanor. The law has been on the books since 1968 in the Federal Gun Control Act.
According to the Dallas County Sheriff’s Department, no guns have been confiscated because there have been no court orders for them to be turned in.
Once such an order is filed, offenders have five days to surrender their guns to the DFW Gun Range in Dallas.
“I am in complete agreement with supporting Dallas County’s decision,” Connie Pettitt, Executive Director of Women In Need, said. Pettitt heads the Greenville office of the organization, which provides a variety of services to women and children affected by domestic violence.
Dallas County is one of the first in Texas to start enforcing this law. Other Texas counties that have some sort of process to confiscate guns include Bexar, El Paso and Travis. Harris County has been interested in to starting a program, the Dallas Morning News reports.
According to the Texas Council on Family Violence, 119 women were killed due to domestic violence and there were 185,453 incidents of family violence in 2013.