The presence of a gun in a household where domestic violence occurs increases the chances of fatalities by six times. A new law, effective November 29, 2011, helps ensure that the federal prohibition against qualifying misdemeanor domestic violence offenders’ eligibility to access a firearm is strongly enforced.

The New York Domestic Violence Firearm Protection Act establishes which offenses and what types of relationships meet the federal definition of “misdemeanor crime of domestic violence” in federal firearms law. This allows New York State to report matching convictions, as determined by the court, to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS), a federally administered program created under the Brady Handgun Prevention Act of 1993 to discourage people convicted of violent crimes from buying guns. Individuals in the NICS database are barred from purchasing guns, including rifles and shotguns.

Offenses covered by the new reporting system are third-degree assault (New York Penal Law 120.00); criminal obstruction of breathing or blood circulation (New York Penal Law121.11); second-degree menacing (New York Penal Law 120.14); and forcible touching (New York Penal Law 130.52). The new law defines potential victims of domestic violence as members of the same “family or household” per New York Criminal Procedure Law 530.11(1). They include married couples, formerly married couples, people with a child in common, people who have never been married but who have had an “intimate relationship” and people who have lived together previously.

Under the new procedures, local district attorneys must notify defendants within 45 days ofarraignment that they have been identified as having committed a domestic violence crime. Upon conviction for one of the offenses enumerated in the law, they would be offered a hearing. Court clerks must send the information to the New York Division of Criminal Justice Services, which will forward it to the FBI. The notification will allow the FBI to deny the purchase of a gun “without further research.”