Domestic Violence & Guns
Know Your Rights In MontanaUnder Protective Orders: If it will make you safer, you can ask a judge to prevent your intimate partner from buying or possessing a gun.
In Montana, a court may use any protective order to prohibit the possession of the firearm that was used by your partner in the assault.(i) Montana state law does not specifically address the purchase, possession or use of any other firearm by your partner. Therefore, in your petition for a hearing you can tell the judge if your partner has a gun or has threatened you with one, and ask the court to use its authority under state law to prohibit your partner from possessing the firearm involved in the assault.
In addition, federal law says that anyone under a "final" order may not possess a gun.(ii) You can ask the court to remind your partner about the federal law and to include the federal language in the order.
After a Conviction: Montana state law does not specifically address the issue of guns and domestic violence convictions. However, federal law says that if your partner is convicted of any felony or a misdemeanor crime of domestic violence, it is illegal for him to obtain or possess a gun.(iii)
(i MT ST 40-15-201 and MT ST 40-15-204// ii18 U.S.C. - 922(g)(8)// iii 18 U.S.C. - 921(a)(33)(A) and 18 U.S.C. - 922(g)(9). The crime need not specifically fall under a domestic violence statute - any assault or battery against a domestic partner is enough. See U.S. v. Ball, 7 Fed. Appx. 210 (4th Cir. Apr. 4, 2001), cert. denied 122 S. Ct. 226(2002) and U.S. v. Barnes, 295 F.3d. 1354 (DC Cir. 2002)).
Information accurate as of June 2003.