Sticking to Their Guns: Examining Firearm‐Related Protective Actions among Intimate Partner Violence Victims

Abstract

An abusive partner's access to a firearm is one of the strongest predictors of intimate partner homicide, and there is evidence that laws limiting abusers' access to firearms are associated with fewer fatalities. Yet, there is a movement to increase access to firearms as a strategy for self-protection among intimate partner violence (IPV) victims. The present study describes both firearm-related and non-firearm-related protective actions among victims of IPV, and further examines which factors (e.g., pro-gun attitudes) are associated with engaging in firearm-related protective actions. Questionnaires were administered to women recruited from six domestic violence shelters in Texas from December 2017 to September 2018. Nearly 13 percent of victims in the analytic sample (N = 197) engaged in one or more forms of firearm-related protective actions in the past year. Multivariate analyses revealed that participants were more likely to have engaged in firearm-related protective actions if they experienced higher firearm-related IPV and if they held stronger pro-gun attitudes. The results highlight the importance of basing firearm policy on empirical evidence as firearms can have deadly consequences.The United States has an indisputable problem with gun violence. Employing the World Health Organization (WHO) Mortality Database, Grinshteyn and Hemenway (2019) reported that the firearm homicide rate per 100,000 people in the United States was 25 times higher than the firearm homicide rate of 30 other developed countries in 2015 1 . This same analysis of WHO mortality data found that the United States accounted for about 92 percent of women and 97 percent of young children (aged 0-4) who were killed with a firearm despite the United States comprising only 31 percent of the population in the developed countries used in the sample. Thus, firearms play a critical role in the serious injury and fatality of women and children in the United States-particularly in the context of familial abuse. The risk that firearms pose is perhaps best evidenced in the context of intimate partner violence (IPV), which includes rape, physical violence, psychological aggression, and/or stalking at the hands of a current or former intimate partner (Breiding et al. 2015). In the United States, women are most commonly murdered by a current or former intimate

Analysis of Factors Affecting Purchase of Self-Defense Tools among Women: A Machine Learning Ensemble Approach

“…That is why in the study of Wu and Klahm [113], women were found to take more precautionary measures and strategies compared to men. They were also most likely to own firearms or other weapons for self-defense, especially when faced with violent and dangerous environments [114]. With those findings, it could be implied that women would splurge more to ensure their safety.…”

Firearms and post‐separation abuse: Providing context behind the data on firearms and intimate partner violence

“…Following separation, survivors and their children typically engage with legal systems. When threatened with firearms, survivors may choose to seek a civil protective order as a safety strategy (Kafka et al., 2021; Lynch, Boots, et al., 2022; Lynch, Jackson, et al., 2022). Family courts are the central legal context that regulates the custody of children following parental separation.…”

“…Threats may be spoken verbally or communicated over technology (e.g. text, email and social media), through hostile gun displays (Azrael & Hemenway, 2000), or more covert tactics such as cleaning a gun in front of a survivor to send a message (Lynch, Boots, et al., 2022; Lynch, Jackson, et al., 2022).…”