Women Under the Gun

As the 20th anniversary of The Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) approaches this September, the Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing entitled “VAWA Next Steps: Protecting Women from Gun Violence.” Also this week, Everytown for Gun Safety released a compelling 30-second TV spot.

To mark the occasion of the Senate hearing, former Arizona congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and Katie Ray Jones, president and acting CEO of the National Domestic Violence Hotline, wrote an Opinion piece for CNN: “The numbers should shock you: Women in America are 11 times more likely to be murdered with a gun than women in other democratic countries with developed economies. In domestic abuse situations, if the abuser has access to a gun, it increases the chance that a woman will die by 500%.  Giffords also announced the Protect all Women Leadership Network, which brings together leading women working in both policy and advocacy to push for reforms at the state and federal level to protect women from gun-toting abusers.

Jacqueline Campbell, a FUTURES board member, and renowned expert on domestic violence homicides, testified that according to her research, “gun access/ownership increased the risk of homicide over and above prior domestic violence by 5.4 times. In fact, gun access was the strongest risk factor for an abused woman to be killed by her partner or ex-partner.”

For more of Ms. Campbell’s testimony, click here.