Stop 2

Women & Guns

  • In 1997-1998, only 11% of the female population in the U.S. owned a gun, as compared to 47% of the male population.[1]

  • As of 1994, only 17% of the female population in the U.S. had ever owned a firearm, compared to 65% of the male population.[2]

  • A gun kept in the home is 22 times more likely to be used in an unintentional shooting (4 times), a criminal assault or homicide (7 times), or an attempted or completed suicide (11 times) than to be used to injure or kill in self-defense.[3]

  • In 1996, gunshot wounds were the single most common cause of death for women in the home, accounting for 42% of suicides and 46% of homicides.[4]

  • Between 1960 and 1980, the total number of females committing suicide with firearms more than doubled, while the total number of females committing suicide by all means other than firearms increased only 16%.[5] Since 1980, the number of female suicides has fluctuated, ranging from an all time high of 2,761 in 1981 to 2,372 in 1997.[6]

  • In 1998, in cases for which the relationship is known, four times the number of homicide victims were killed by someone they knew (6,856) than by strangers (1,839).[7]

  • In 1998, about one third (1,317) of female murder victims were killed by an intimate (spouse, ex-spouse, boyfriend, or girlfriend).[8]

  • In 1996, only 3% of women who were murdered in their home were known to have been killed by strangers. 82% were killed by someone they knew.[9]

  • In 1996, 65% of all intimate partner homicides involved guns.[10]

  • In 1994, over 500,000 women were seen in hospital emergency rooms for violence-related injuries; over one-third of these injuries were inflicted by current or former husbands or boyfriends.[11]

  • Family and intimate assaults involving guns are 12 times more likely to result in death than other family and intimate partner assaults.[12]

  • From 1987-1990, victims used firearms to protect themselves in fewer than one percent of all violent offenses.[13]

  • In 1998, there were only 148 justifiable handgun homicides by a private citizen compared with a total of 7,361 handgun murders in the United States.[14]

Updated 3/29/00

Notes:

  1. National Opinion Research Center, The University of Chicago, 1997-1998 National Gun Policy Survey, September 1998.
  2. Police Foundation, Guns in America: Results of a Comprehensive National Survey on Firearms Ownership and Use, (Washington, D.C., 1996), p. 33.
  3. Kellermann AL. "Injuries and Deaths Due to Firearms in the Home." J, Trauma 1998; 45(2):263-67.
  4. Bailey, James E., et. al., "Risk Factors for Violent Deaths of Women in the Home", Archives of Internal Medicine, 1997;157:777-782
  5. Zimring F E. "Policy research on firearms and violence." Health Affairs, 1993;12(4):109-22.
  6. Mortality Data from Centers for Disease Control – Wonder, 2000.
  7. FBI Uniform Crime Report, 1999; p.22.
  8. "Homicide Trends in the United States." Bureau of Justice Statistics, 1998.
  9. Bailey, James E., et. al., "Risk Factors for Violent Deaths of Women in the Home", Archives of Internal Medicine, 1997;157:777-782
  10. Lawrence A. Greenfeld, et al. "Violence By Intimates: Analysis of Data on Crimes By Current or Former Spouses, Boyfriends and Girlfriends." Bureau of Justice Statistics, 1998.
  11. "Healthy People 2000 Review 1998-1999." Centers for Disease Control, 1999.
  12. Linda E. Saltzman, et al. "Weapon Involvement and Injury Outcome in Family and Intimate Assaults," Journal of the American Medical Ass'n, 1992; 267:3043.
  13. McDowall D. "The incidence of defensive firearm use by US crime victims, 1987 through 1990." American Journal of Public Health, 1994; 84(12):1982-84.
  14. FBI Uniform Crime Report, 1999; table 2.13, p.20 and table 2.17, p.22.