Disarm Hate

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Top Highlights

• Congress and state legislatures should pass laws that keep guns out of the hands of those who have been convicted of hate crimes.

• The work to prevent hate-motivated violence must include stronger gun laws, like the Disarm Hate Act, which closes a dangerous loophole in federal law by prohibiting people convicted of violent or threatening hate crimes from having a gun.

• States should also act to stop people convicted of hate crimes from buying or having a gun.

• In addition, Extreme Risk laws can help prevent access to guns by people who have shown serious warning signs that they are a threat to others, including those who are motivated by bias.

• Easy access to firearms gives a hate-filled individual the opportunity to shatter numerous lives and whole communities

• While all felonies prohibit gun possession under federal law, most misdemeanors, including hate crime misdemeanors, do not—even though hate crimes involving firearms were the catalyst for hate crime laws in the United States.

• Hate crime misdemeanors can be serious, violent acts, but under federal law, a violent or threatening hate crime misdemeanor

• This means that in parts of the country a person convicted of a violent hate crime could legally pass a background check and buy a gun.

• Hate crime misdemeanors can be serious, violent acts, but under federal law, a violent or threatening hate crime misdemeanor

• Hate crime misdemeanors can be serious, violent acts, but under federal law, a violent or threatening hate crime misdemeanor