DENVER — After months of waiting, the director of a Colorado domestic violence support group got good news when the Supreme Court ruled Friday to keep a law in place that keeps firearms away from people under domestic violence restraining orders.
"I was ecstatic," said Angela Ceseña, executive director of the Latina SafeHouse.
She said she had two reasons to worry ahead of this decision: Colorado's domestic violence fatalities have been trending up. In 2022, the state reported 94 domestic violence fatalities, the most ever recorded.
She also coupled concerns about that trend with other recent Supreme Court rulings. In 2022, the court overturned a New York state law that required people to show "proper case" to get a license to carry a concealed weapon in public.
Just last week, the court overturned a federal ban on bump stocks, which are devices that can turn a semiautomatic gun fully automatic. In Las Vegas in 2017, a person used a bump stock to fire about 1,000 times in 11 minutes, killing 60 people and injuring hundreds.
"It would have been terrible," Ceseña said, if the court had allowed people under restraining orders to have guns.
In 2022, 37% of people killed from domestic violence in Colorado were Latino, while Laintos make up only about 20% of the state's population.
The ruling comes at a time of concern.
"We're going to see more cases of domestic violence," Ceseña said.
Some studies link domestic violence to sporting events. The Copa America has just began.
"You have gambling. You have alcohol. You have machismo," Ceseña said. "All of that combined is taken out on the person closes to them."
So far this year, Denver Police have reported four domestic violence-related homicides. For all of 2023, Denver Police reported five.
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