DOJ Office of Violence Against Women expands funding to help communities reduce gun-involved domestic violence

Promoting community response and assistance, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced this week that its Office on Violence Against Women (OVW) will expand efforts to reduce domestic violence inflicted with firearms, with $10 million on offer.

Presented through the expansion of the Firearms Technical Assistance Project (FTAP), the OVW effort seeks to reduce violent homicides and injuries caused by firearms throughout the country. To do this, it will use $6 million to arrange up to 12 sites and another $4 million for training and technical assistance related to firearms and domestic violence. Direct financial aid will be provided to all sites, and efforts will be taken to incorporate community partners, particularly those that aid underserved populations.

“Enforcing gun laws and keeping firearms from the hands of perpetrators of domestic violence is crucial to keeping victims safe,” OVW Acting Director Allison Randall said. “The FTAP expansion is another example of the department’s commitment in its efforts to reduce violent crime. The funding will help our grantees develop and implement community-based and culturally specific strategies to enforce firearms laws and is an important part of preventing homicides.”

The National Domestic Violence Hotline estimates that domestic violence abusers with a gun in the home are five times more likely to kill their partners. Details like that are among the reasons that individuals with domestic violence misdemeanor and felony convictions, along with domestic violence protective orders, are forbidden by law from possessing firearms.

FTAP, launched in 2019, is meant to help communities pursue policies and agreements that will better prevent abusers from accessing firearms. The new funding will allow it to add six sites to a list already, including sites in Birmingham, Ala.; Muscogee (Creek) Nation; Columbus, Ohio; Brooklyn, N.Y.; the state of Vermont; and Spokane, Wash. From the millions offered, $2 million will be used to help implement effective firearms responses, another $2 million to train and support sites dealing with domestic violence in underserved communities. A further $750,000 will be used to maintain a domestic violence and firearms national resource center.

Deadlines for applications — through Grants.Gov and JustGrants, respectively — end in September.