Is There A Gun In Your House

Guns and domestic violence are a lethal combination - injuring and killing women every day in the United States.

A gun is the weapon most commonly used in domestic homicides.

In fact, more than three times as many women are murdered by guns used by their husbands or intimate acquaintances than are killed by strangers’ guns, knives or other weapons combined.

Contrary to many public perceptions, many women who are murdered are killed not by strangers but by men they know.

Nearly one-third of all women murdered in the United States in recent years were murdered by a current or former intimate partner.

In 2000, 1,247 women, more than three a day, were killed by their intimate partners.

Of females killed with a firearm, almost two-thirds of were killed by their intimate partners.

Access to firearms increases the risk of intimate partner homicide more than five times more than in instances where there are no weapons, according to a recent study.

In addition, abusers who possess guns tend to inflict the most severe abuse on their partners.

In 2002, 54 percent of female homicide victims were shot and killed with a gun.