Turns Out Guns Are Pretty Useless Against Domestic Abuse
So remember in the NRA’s desperation after the Orlando shooting when they tried to market themselves to women by saying that guns were a great way to protect yourself against rapists, murderers, and all the other shit that we have to worry about on a daily basis?
Sure, theoretically, having a gun on you would be super helpful if you happened to get attacked on your walk home from work or on your morning run. But aside from all our theories about whether having a gun would help women in the long run, there are the statistics to prove that it wouldn’t.
In fact, if you are a woman with a gun in your home, data shows that it’s much more likely to be used against you. A study released this month, called When Men Murder Women, showed that over 1,600 women were killed by men in 2014, with the most common weapon being a gun. In contrast, only 15 women successfully used a gun to defend themselves and kill the man attacking them.
Only 15!
“The picture that emerges from When Men Murder Women is that women face the greatest threat from someone they know, most often a spouse or intimate acquaintance, who is armed with a gun,” says the report. “For women in America, guns are not used to save lives, but to take them.”
This is really, really sad and f*cked up. The study found that thirteen times as many females were murdered by a male they knew than were killed by male strangers. They weren’t all husbands or boyfriends either (although the majority were), sometimes it was a family member, or even a stranger.
We’re not here to tell you how to live your life, and if having a gun makes you feel safer, then more power to you. But if you are going to own a gun, make sure it’s kept somewhere safe and/or in your possession at all times.
For those of you who aren’t so keen on guns, don’t buy into gun-obsessives trying to tell you that owning a gun can save your life, because chances are, having a gun in your home is only going to put you in more danger.
