Saturday, July 19, 2014

Domestic Violence, Women and Guns

Huffington Post

The statistics are horrifyingly real. From 2001 to 2012, the number of women murdered by intimate partners using guns (6,410) exceeded the number of U.S. troops killed in action in the Iraq and Afghan wars combined. Every day in our country, five women are murdered by gunfire. Even the most ardent gun-rights advocates should be appalled by this home grown carnage involving women. As far as intimacy and violence are concerned, our guns are not securing us. They are killing us at home and in our neighborhoods.
In its recent study, "Women Under the Gun," The Center for American Progress sets out the facts explaining how anemic gun laws at both the federal and state levels are allowing women to be killed. First, violence against women is generally a crime of intimacy. In 65 percent of cases, women knew their attackers. Men knew their assailants only 34 percent of the time.
Second, according to the study, a staggering proportion of violence against women is fatal, and guns are a key factor in those deaths. As the Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence recognizes, if an abuser owns a firearm, an abused woman is five times more likely to be killed. (Domestic Violence & Firearm Policy Summary at smartgunlaws.org.)
Put simply, the presence of guns dramatically increases the probability of death in incidents involving domestic violence. In 2011 almost two-thirds of women killed with guns were killed by their intimate partners.

5 comments:

  1. "As the Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence recognizes, if an abuser owns a firearm, an abused woman is five times more likely to be killed. (Domestic Violence & Firearm Policy Summary at smartgunlaws.org.)
    Put simply, the presence of guns dramatically increases the probability of death in incidents involving domestic violence."

    Put so simply as to be inaccurate. I wonder if the study mentions statistics when the victim owns a gun...We will likely get a chance to see what happens to these numbers since the percentage of women buying firearms and getting carry permits is growing rapidly.
    Many states(Minnesota included), also include expedited carry permit processes for those who have received a protection order as a result of being a victim of domestic violence.

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    1. Not inaccurate at all. Your hypothetical of more women owning guns as a means of offsetting the trend is just that, hypothetical. The fact is guns in the abusive home are bad news for women.

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    2. Expedited? So women are rushing to get a gun to shoot their spouse?

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  2. "So women are rushing to get a gun to shoot their spouse?"

    Obviously not Anon, the legislation allowing expedited permits has been in force for as long as the shall issue permit system, over ten years. This hasn't been an issue during that time so it seems to be working just fine.
    In fact there have been many articles written contending that the most dangerous time for victims of domestic abuse is when they actually take steps to leave. So being able to defend yourself in the event a protection order isn't respected would be a good thing.

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    1. There is still the pesky fact that having a gun in the home causes more harm to those living in that home.

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