Women's Protection
By: Sam Barrett
The nation has been rocked recently as mass shootings after mass shootings are occurring around the United States. However, this isn’t anything new. Gun violence is a public health crisis that affects us all. Our government has been stagnant when it comes to implementing more/new gun reform, and it’s time for that to change as threats and shootings become more and more common than they already have been.
Women are uniquely affected by this crisis. According to americanprogress.org, “While men suffer even higher rates of gun violence, women are often targeted for violence because of their sex and are frequently victims of people they know well.” Gun violence affects the entire nation; children, LGBTQ+ members, low-income communities, and anyone having a regular day out can quickly become a victim - it affects anyone and everyone. However, today we want to take a moment to focus on gun violence in correlation to domestic abuse. “Every month, an average of 57 women are killed with a firearm by an intimate partner.” according to americanprogress.org. This same article also states, “A 2016 study found that nearly 1 million women alive at that time had been shot by an intimate partner, and 4.5 million women had been threatened with a firearm.” A report released in 2019 by the Center for American Progress titled “Transforming the Culture of Power: An Examination of Gender-Based Violence in the United States” included an analysis of gender-based gun violence. According to americanprogress.org, this report highlights five key challenges around firearms and gender-based violence in the United States;
Guns used in an intimate partner context. A significant portion of firearm violence against women occurs in an intimate partner context, disproportionately impacting women of color.
Gender-based violence perpetrated by strangers and acquaintances. Gender-based violence by non-intimate partners, mainly targeting women of color, reveals the harmful consequences of easy access to firearms by misogynistic and racist individuals.
Transgender women targeted by gun-related hate crimes. Transgender women, particularly trans women of color, experience disproportionate effects from gun-related hate crimes.
The harmful effects of COVID-19 on gun violence against women. Intersecting crises, including the economic recession resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic, have led to spikes in gun violence against women.
Political actors block gun reform and promote dangerous narratives. Gun lobbyists and manufacturers promote gender-stereotyped narratives to promote widespread gun ownership despite empirical evidence demonstrating how dangerous the weapons are.
Here are some more statistics from this same article and report related to the five challenges in gender-based gun violence:
“Firearms are used in intimate partner violence more than any other weapon. According to data from the FBI’s supplemental homicide reports, from 2010 to 2019, more than 50 percent of homicides of women perpetrated by an intimate partner involved the use of a gun.”
“In 2021, at least 45 transgender or gender-nonconforming people—most of whom were Black or transgender women of color—were shot or killed by other violent means.”
“Between 2017 and 2019, 74 percent of homicides of transgender people involved a gun.”
“Early estimates found that there was an 8 percent increase in reports of domestic violence during the months immediately following stay-at-home orders in early 2020.”
“Evidence shows that the presence of a gun during a domestic violence situation increases the likelihood that a death will occur by 400 percent, no matter who owns the firearm.”
“92 percent of women who are killed by men are killed by a familiar person.”
These statistics only involve gender-based gun violence or gun violence related to domestic abuse. Imagine what the statistics for all mass shootings and gun violence look like. I’ll give you an idea - most news outlets and research centers estimate the number of mass shootings that have happened just this year alone to be around 250. We are halfway through the year, and we have already experienced around 250 mass shootings around the nation, and this number is only related to mass shootings (which is defined as four or more people being injured or killed). Imagine what the numbers would be if we could properly document all acts of gun violence. Gun violence must come to a halt, and the only way to do this is to enforce gun reform. Use your voice to educate others and motivate your local and federal government!
