GUN LAWS

WOMEN IN THE UNITED STATES ARE ELEVEN TIMES MORE LIKELY TO BE MURDERED WITH GUNS THAN THEY ARE IN ANY OTHER DEVELOPED NATION. THIS VIOLENCE IS DIRECTLY RELATED TO OUR WEAK GUN LAWS AND REQUIRING A BACKGROUND CHECK FOR EVERY GUN SALE WILL REDUCE VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN AND SAVE LIVES. 1

REQUIRING A BACKGROUND CHECK FOR EVERY GUN SALE WILL SAVE WOMEN’S LIVES.

WOMEN IN THE U.S. ARE 11 TIMES MORE LIKELY TO BE MURDERED WITH GUNS THAN WOMEN IN OTHER HIGH-INCOME COUNTRIES.Women in the US are killed at alarming rates and firearms play a key role in turning domestic abuse into murder. Over the past 25 years, more intimate partner homicides in the US have been committed with guns than with all other weapons combined.2

WHEN A GUN IS PRESENT IN A DOMESTIC VIOLENCE SITUATION, THE WOMAN IS FIVE TIMES MORE LIKELY TO BE MURDERED.3

People with a history of com-mitting domestic violence are more likely to subsequently murder an intimate partner, and firearms significantly increase the risk of homicide for women.4

A MAJORITY OF MASS SHOOTINGS INVOLVE INCIDENTS OF DOMESTIC VIOLENCE.A Mayors Against Illegal Guns Analysis of every identifiable mass shooting between 2009 and 2014 found that in 63 of those 110 incidents (57%), the shooter killed a current or former intimate partner or other family member. In at least 20 of those shootings, the perpetrator had a prior domestic violence charge. That’s why federal law prohibits certain domestic abusers from buying guns.6

...BUT EACH YEAR

ARE EXCHANGED IN PRIVATE TRANSFERS WITHOUT CRIMINAL BACKGROUND CHECKS.8

MILLIONS OF GUNS

When it works properly, the background check system keeps guns out of abusers’ hands. Since its inception in 1998, the National Instant Criminal Background Check System has blocked more than two million attempted gun sales to prohibited purchasers, including more than 300,000 gun sales to domestic abusers.7

Dangerous domestic abusers can easily avoid background checks and buy guns by buying from unlicensed, private sellers — who of-ten sell at gun shows or through anonymous online transactions — and are not required by federal law to conduct background checks on potential buyers.

IN STATES THAT REQUIRE A BACKGROUND CHECK FOR EVERY HANDGUN SALE, 46 PERCENT FEWER WOMEN ARE SHOT TO DEATH BY INTIMATE PARTNERS.9

55%of women killed

with guns are killed by intimate partners or family members5

57%of mass shootings involve domestic

violence

AND VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN

WWW.EVERYTOWN.ORG

1. D. Hemenway and E.G. Richardson, “Homicide, Suicide, and Unintentional Firearm Fatality: Comparing the United States with Other High-Income Countries, 2003,” 70 Journal of Trauma 238-42 (2011), available at doi: 10.1097/TA.0b013e3181dbaddf.

2. Professor April M. Zeoli, Letter to the Hon. Patrick J. Leahy & Charles Grassley, January 28, 2013.

3. J.C. Campbell, D.W. Webster, J. Koziol-McLain, et al., “Risk factors for femicide within physically abusive intimate relationships: results from a multi-site case control study,” 93 Amer. J. of Public Health 1089-1097 (2003).

4. Mayors Against Illegal Guns, Felon Seeks Firearm (2013), available at: http://everytown.org/article/felon-seeks-firearm/

5. Federal Bureau of Investigation, “Supplementary Homicide Report,” 2011.

6. “Analysis of Recent Mass Shootings,” Mayors Against Illegal Guns, July 2014, available at: http://everytown.org/article/analysis-of-mass-shootings/

7. Everytown for Gun Safety, Guns and Violence Against Women, available at http://everytown.org/article/guns-and-violence-against-women/

8. In states that have not fully closed the private sale loophole, private handgun sales are conducted without background checks. 9,856,984 back-ground checks were conducted for licensed gun sales between December 2011 and December 2012 in the 38 states that had at that time not closed the loophole. Assuming that this number represents 60 percent of the total gun sales in those states, and private transfers represent the other 40 percent, we estimate private transfers numbered 6.6 million over that 12-month period.

9. Everytown for Gun Safety, “State background check requirements and rates of domestic violence suicide,” available at: http://every.tw/1Aj9HZj.