San Diego City Attorney watching close ahead of Supreme Court's ruling over domestic abusers' gun rights

The Supreme Court will soon decide whether domestic abusers have a constitutional right to own a gun, and San Diego's City Attorney will be following the case closely.

Two years ago, TikTok star Ali Abulaban was arrested and charged with killing his wife and her friend in their East Village high-rise apartment.

The fallout of their marriage was triggered by incidents of domestic violence, according to preliminary testimony. It's just one example of why San Diego City Attorney Mara Elliott says domestic abusers with access to guns are a deadly mix.

"Particularly in domestic violence situations where if there's a gun in the home of somebody who is being abused, they are 500% more likely to be murdered," explained Elliott.

That danger is one of the reasons why Elliott and Kris Brown from the gun organization Brady met one-on-one in Del Mar Wednesday.

Their meeting comes as the Supreme Court gets ready to weigh a case involving Zackey Rahimi — who was convicted of possessing a gun while under a domestic violence protective order. The Texas drug dealer was accused of beating his girlfriend and implicated in a series of shootings.

Justices will decide whether people like Rahimi have a right to own firearms.

The case being heard has some similarities to Roe v Wade, in that when the Supreme Court overturned the constitutional right to an abortion, it had sweeping repercussions across the country.

"The state of California has gun protection tools, but I really do worry about our nation because we are looking at colonial times to determine how we should respond to modern-day problems," said Elliott.

“The lives of America's women and those also men who are subject to domestic violence are literally hanging in the balance of this court's decision," Brown added.

Nationally, more than 50 people, usually women, die each month from domestic violence where guns are often involved, according to Brown.

There's concern that the number could increase depending on the outcome of the Rahimi case.

“We want to disrupt that cycle and ensure that domestic violence, restraining orders that actually help to remove firearms from individuals who are perpetrating these kinds of offensives are held as constitutional," said Brown.

regardless of the court's decision, Elliott said California's gun violence prevention laws would help protect San Diego.

Domestic violence restraining orders allow law enforcement agencies to take guns away from people who pose a threat to themselves and others.

Since San Diego started the program in 2017, 1,000 restraining orders have been issued, Elliott said.

“That’s not a number that we're necessarily proud of because that shows that there were a lot of issues within the city. But I think that the people who live here can be happy to know they're not reading about disasters in their newspaper because perhaps we were able to intervene and prevent those from happening," Elliott said.

The Rahimi case is scheduled to be reviewed by the Supreme Court Nov. 7