Judges across Tennessee are now demanding greater accountability from people who have been ordered to give up their guns, a shift aimed at strengthening protections for domestic violence victims.
The change is being adopted county by county, after state lawmakers bowed to opposition from the National Rifle Association over a bill that would have taken that reform statewide.
The move follows reporting by WPLN and ProPublica over the past two years that found Tennessee’s lax gun laws and enforcement have allowed firearms to remain in dangerous hands. The state consistently has one of the highest rates of women killed by men, and most of those homicides are committed with guns. The news organizations’ analysis found that about 1 in 4 victims of domestic violence gun homicides were killed by someone who was barred from having a firearm…