Guns and Domestic Violence

The presence of a gun in domestic violence situations increases the risk of homicide for women by 500 percent.

Statistics have shown that domestic violence is more likely to turn deadly with access to firearms. According a publication by the American Journal of Public Health, the presence of a gun in domestic violence situations increases the risk of homicide for women by 500 percent.[1] More than half of women murdered with guns are killed by family members or intimate partners.

In addition, guns are the most common means of homicide in domestic assault. A study found that female intimate partners are more likely to be murdered with a firearm than by all other means combined.[2]

Guns are often used in non-fatal domestic violence. Harvard School of Public Health researchers analyzed gun use in the home and concluded that “hostile gun displays against family members may be more common than gun use in self-defense, and that hostile gun displays are often acts of domestic violence directed against women.”

A recent study found that more than half of the 110 mass shootings in the United States between January 2009 and July 2014 included the murder of a current or former spouse, an intimate partner or a family member.[3]

Reduced access to firearms and common sense gun safety measures are effective in preventing domestic tragedies. In contrast to other developed, high-income countries, women in the United States are 21 times more likely to be murdered with a firearm.[8] Within the US, 38% fewer women are shot to death by intimate partners in states that require a background check for every handgun sale.[5]

Fast Facts

• 93 percent of women murdered by men are killed by someone they know.[6]
• Abused women are five times more likely to be killed by their abuser if the abuser owns a firearm. [7]
• More than twice as many women are killed by a husband or intimate acquaintance than are killed by a stranger using a gun, a knife, or any other means.

Sources
[1] J.C. Campbell, D.W. Webster, J. Koziol-McLain, et al., “Risk factors for femicide within physically abusive intimate relationships: results from a multi-site case control study,” 93 Amer. J. of Public Health 1089-1097 (2003).

[2] Leonard J. Paulozzi et al., “Surveillance for Homicide Among Intimate Partners—United States, 1981-1998,” Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR) Surveillance Summaries 50 (October 12, 2001): 1-16

[3] Everytown. “Guns and Violence Against Women. America’s Uniquely Lethal Domestic Violence Problem.” Accessed July 29, 2016.https://everytownresearch.org/report/guns-and-violence-against-women-americas-uniquely-lethal-intimate-partner-violence-problem/

[4] D. Hemenway and E.G. Richardson, “Homicide, Suicide, and Unintentional Firearm Fatality: Comparing the United States with Other High-Income Countries, 2003,” 70 Journal of Trauma 238-42 (2011), available at doi: 10.1097/TA.0b013e3181dbaddf.

[5] U.S. Department of Justice, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Supplementary Homicide Reports, 2010, available at http://bit.ly/V1GvFe (excludes New York due to incomplete data).

[6] Female Homicide Victimization by Males. Violence Policy Center. Washington, DC. Retrieved June, 2021. 
https://vpc.org/?s=Female+homicide+victimization+&submit=Go

[7] Jacquelyn C. Campbell et al., Risk Factors for Femicide in Abusive Relationships: Results from a Multisite Case Control Study, 93 Am. J. Pub. Health 1089, 1092 (July 2003).

[8] https://everytownresearch.org/gun-violence-america/