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An Estimated 4.5 Million Women Have Been Threatened with Guns by Abusive Partners
https://www.thetrace.org/2016/10/nonfatal-gun-use-domestic-violence/A firearm doesn’t have to go off to play a critical role in domestic violence.
The least understood aspect of the role of guns in abusive relationships is also the most pervasive.
An estimated 4.5 million women in the U.S. have been bullied or coerced with a firearm by an intimate partner. Another 1 million have survived a gunshot wound or been shot at. Those are the central findings of the first systematic review on the nonfatal use of firearms in domestic violence.
“There hasn’t been much research on guns and women in the first place,” Susan Sorenson, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania and the study’s lead author, tells The Trace. “What has been conducted tends to focus on women’s deaths. This research focuses on women’s lives.”
The least understood aspect of the role of guns in abusive relationships is also the most pervasive.
An estimated 4.5 million women in the U.S. have been bullied or coerced with a firearm by an intimate partner. Another 1 million have survived a gunshot wound or been shot at. Those are the central findings of the first systematic review on the nonfatal use of firearms in domestic violence.
“There hasn’t been much research on guns and women in the first place,” Susan Sorenson, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania and the study’s lead author, tells The Trace. “What has been conducted tends to focus on women’s deaths. This research focuses on women’s lives.”
Forty five years ago my wife worked for a small town lawyer. A woman came into the office one day, one eye swollen shut and her cheek bone broken. She had been pistol whipped by her husband . . . again. She asked for help. The attorney suggested a restraining order and offered to file for divorce pro bono. She refused saying that she had dropped out of middle school 40 years ago and now had no education, no skills, no illusions about her appearance and four children to feed. All she wanted was for him to stop hurting her.
The attorney wrote a letter to the man. It was on office letterhead and filled with legalese, fabricated statutes and empty threats. He sent it by registered mail to give it added panache. At the time it was all he could do.
Things have improved since then with nearly half the states passing laws to take guns from men under restraining orders and permanently denying convicted domestic abusers their gun rights. Still, there isn't any method of enforcement nor is there a way to prevent offenders from buying guns from private sellers.
We still have a long way to go. Vote for candidates who favor gun legislation. Then hold them accountable. Gun violence is a woman's issue.
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