Policy Issue: Firearms and Domestic Violence

Background information on firearms and domestic violence

Guns and domestic violence are a lethal combination, killing and injuring women every day. The preponderance of evidence suggests that the presence of guns makes it more likely that victims of domestic violence will be injured or killed. An abuser’s access to firearms alone is consistently identified as a significant risk factor for homicide.

It is clear that the combination of stricter gun control laws and increased funding for victim ervices and domestic violence programs dramatically reduced the rate of domestic homicide across the country between 1994 and 2000. For this reason, advocates support current policies and procedures that keep weapons out of the hands of dangerous criminals, including batterers and sex offenders are not watered down.

According to a 2002 study by the US General Accounting Office, approximately 2,800 convicted batterers purchased firearms between 1998 and 2001 because the FBI was unable to complete criminal background checks before the sales went through. Although federal law prohibits people convictedomestic violence crimes from purchasing or possessing firearms, these people, and more than 8,000 other convicted felons, were able to purchase weapons because the required background checks were not completed in time or due to other record keeping problems.

Meanwhile, the National Rifle Association (NRA) has unleashed a campaign to arm women usingw omen’s vulnerability to rape and violence as the compelling argument. Fear is a very compelling argument and motivator, and the NRA has found it a successful strategy for expanding its memberamong women and for arming women. What is rarely found in such promotions is real data on woand guns and risk.

Femicide and Guns

• Nationally, women who were murdered with a firearm were more likely, not less likely, to have purchased a handgun in the three years prior to their deaths (Grassel, K. M., et al “Association Between handgun Purchase ad Mortality from Firearm Injury”, Injury Prevention 9 (2003): 50)

• In a six month period of 2003, 50% of women killed by men in single victim/single perpetrator homicides in the U.S. were killed with a firearm; 77% of the firearms were handguns. (When Men Murder Women: An Analysis of 2003 Homicide Data. Females Murdered by Males in Single Victim Single Offender Incidents. Violence Policy Center September 2005)

• The number of women killed with a firearm by husbands or intimate acquaintances was more than 3 times higher than the total number of women killed by male strangers using all weapons combined. (Ibid)

• During a six month period in 2005, there were 591 total deaths resulting from 264 incidents of murder-suicide in the United States. Of these
o 94% of the perpetrators were male.
o 255 of the 327 murder victims were female.
o 92% of the incidents involved firearms.
o 74% of the incidents were intimate partner murder-suicides and of these, 96% were females killed by their intimate partners.
o Of 39 murder-suicides with more than one murder victims, 34 were firearm related.
(American Roulette: Murder-Suicide in the United States. Violence Policy Center May 2006)

• Women in homes with guns were found to be 3 times more likely to be killed than women who had no gun in the home. (Wiebe, Douglas “Homicide and Suicide Risks Associated with firearms in the Home: A National Case-Control Study”, Annals of Emergency Medicine 41 No. 6 (2003) :775)

• Abusers’ access to firearms, alone, was cited as a significant indicator of heightened risk of homicide for victims of domestic violence. (Campbell, Jacquelyn C., et al “Risk Factors for Femicide in Abusive Relationships: Results From a Multisite Case Study” American Journal of Public Health July 2003: 1089)

This policy paper was prepared by Jane Doe Inc., a statewide membership organization of over 60 community-based sexual assault and domestic violence programs and other organizations and individuals committed to ending sexual and domestic violence.

For more information or questions about this policy paper, please contact Jane Doe Inc. at 617-248-0922 or info@janedoe.org