Posted on 10/27/2002 10:33:10 AM PST by vannrox
A Deadly MythWomen, Handguns, and Self-DefenseIntroduction In the late 1980s, the gun industry began targeting women to counter slumping handgun sales among its primary market of white males. The false message delivered by gunmakers was clear: the greatest threat posed to a woman was an attack by a stranger and, the best form of protection a woman could rely upon was a handgun.1 Much to the disappointment and consternation of the gun industry, these efforts for the most part have failed. A 1995 study by the National Opinion Research Center (NORC) conducted by Tom Smith and Robert J. Smith found that handgun ownership among women was, and remains, uncommon. This study found any fluctuations in the percentage of women who owned handguns to be statistically insignificant (see Chart One below).2 The 1996 study Guns in America found that only 6.6 percent of adult American women owned a handgunless than one out of every 10 women. But of these women, nearly 85 percent owned their handguns for self-defensea figure that offers gunmakers continual hope in their marketing endeavors.3 Yet how often are handguns actually used by women to kill in self-defense? The answer, as revealed by unpublished Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) data, is hardly ever. Women were murdered with handguns more than 1,200 times in 1998 alone. As these numbers reveal, handguns don't offer protection for women, but instead guarantee peril.4 For all of the promises made on behalf of the self-defense handgun, using a handgun to kill in self-defense is a rare event.5 Looking at both men and women, over the past 20 years, on average only two percent of the homicides committed with handguns in the United States were deemed justifiable or self-defense homicides by civilians.6 To put it in perspective, more people are struck by lightning each year than use handguns to kill in self-defense.7 This study presents data from the FBI and consists of three different analyses concerning women, handguns, and self-defense. It compares incidents of:
Despite the promises of gun-industry advertising, a woman is far more likely to be the victim of a handgun homicide than to use a handgun in a justifiable homicide. In 1998, handguns were used to murder 1,209 women.8 That same year, 12 women used handguns to kill in self-defense. When a woman did use a handgun to kill in self-defense, it was usually against someone she knew, not against a stranger. Of the 12 handgun self-defense killings by women reported to the FBI in 1998, eight involved attackers known to the woman, while only four involved strangers. All the attackers that the women justifiably killed were males, as were an overwhelming number of offenders in female handgun homicides. For the majority of both justifiable and criminal homicides, both the shooter and the victim were of the same race. [See Table One]
Black - 67%
Other - 0%
Black - 58%
Other - 0% |
White - 55%
Black - 42%
Other - 3% |
White - 53%
Black - 45%
Other - 1% |
|||||||||||||||||||
Gender | . | Male - 100%
Female - 0% |
. | Male - 96%
Female - 4% |
|||||||||||||||||
Percent of incidents that were intra-racial10 | 75% | 92% |
In 1998, for every time a woman used a handgun to kill an intimate acquaintance in self-defense, 83 woman were murdered by an intimate acquaintance with a handgun.
It is often intimate acquaintances and family members who endanger a woman's life.11 Yet women who own a handgun for self-defense usually do so to protect themselves from strangers. Many women who use handguns to kill in self-defense use the weapon against someone they know, or someone with whom they have, or have had, a romantic relationship.
Recognizing that most people are killed by someone they know, it is not surprising that the majority of justifiable homicides involve victims and attackers known to each other. Of the 12 justifiable homicides by women using a handgun that were reported to the FBI in 1998, eight involved an attacker known to the woman. Of these eight offenders, six were intimate acquaintances (three boyfriends, three husbands), one was a friend, and one was an acquaintance.
When there is a deadly encounter between a woman and her intimate acquaintance, and a handgun is involved, the most common scenario involves a woman being shot and killed by her intimate acquaintance. Of the 872 women murdered with a handgun whose relationship could be determined, 57 percent (497 of 872) were intimate acquaintances of the offender.12 Of these, more than half (260 of 497) were wives of the offenders. [See Table Two]
TABLE TWO Women who killed an intimate acquaintance with a handgun in self-defense Women murdered by an intimate acquaintance with a handgun
Number of People
6
497
Relationships
3 were Girlfriends
3 were Wives
260 were Wives |
180 were Girlfriends
31 were Common-Law Wives
26 were Ex-Wives
In 1998, for every time a woman used a handgun to kill a stranger in self-defense, 302 woman were murdered with a handgun.
Women who purchase handguns for self-protection are most likely planning to protect themselves and their families from strangers. Yet, women rarely use handguns to kill strangers in self-defense. In fact, compared to the frequency with which a woman uses a handgun to kill a stranger, the number of times that a handgun is used to murder a woman is staggering.
Table Three lists, by state, the number of women who used a handgun to kill a stranger or an intimate acquaintance in self-defense, as well as the number of women murdered with a handgun in 1998. Of the 47 states that submitted data to the FBI that year, only eight reported any justifiable homicides by women involving a handgun: California, Colorado, Georgia, Michigan, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Tennessee, and Texas. Of these, only California, Georgia, and North Carolina reported women who justifiably killed a stranger in self-defense, while California, Colorado, Oklahoma, Tennessee, and Texas reported women who justifiably killed an intimate acquaintance in self-defense.
Table Three
State
Number of Women Who Used a Handgun
Number of Women Murdered with a Handgun
to Kill a Stranger in Self-Defense
to Kill an Intimate Acquaintance in Self-Defense
to Kill a Friend or Acquaintance in Self-Defense
Alabama
0
0
0
37
Alaska
0
0
0
4
Arizona
0
0
0
42
Arkansas
0
0
0
20
California
2
1
0
178
Colorado
0
1
0
21
Connecticut
0
0
0
10
Delaware
0
0
0
2
Florida13
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
Georgia
1
0
0
46
Hawaii
0
0
0
1
Idaho
0
0
0
5
Illinois
0
0
0
49
Indiana
0
0
0
51
Iowa
0
0
0
8
Kansas
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
Kentucky
0
0
0
8
Louisiana
0
0
0
48
Maine
0
0
0
5
Maryland
0
0
0
28
Massachusetts
0
0
0
3
Michigan
0
0
1
41
Minnesota
0
0
0
6
Mississippi
0
0
0
15
Missouri
0
0
0
28
Montana
0
0
0
2
Nebraska
0
0
0
2
Nevada
0
0
0
16
New Hampshire
0
0
0
1
New Jersey
0
0
0
18
New Mexico
0
0
0
3
New York
0
0
0
45
North Carolina
1
0
0
59
North Dakota
0
0
0
0
Ohio
0
0
0
35
Oklahoma
0
1
0
20
Oregon
0
0
0
17
Pennsylvania
0
0
0
53
Rhode Island
0
0
0
0
South Carolina
0
0
0
39
South Dakota
0
0
0
1
Tennessee
0
2
0
34
Texas
0
1
1
124
Utah
0
0
0
8
Vermont
0
0
0
1
Virginia
0
0
0
34
Washington
0
0
0
27
West Virginia
0
0
0
9
Wisconsin
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
Wyoming
0
0
0
5
Total
4
6
2
1,209
Table Four offers a more detailed analysis of the 1998 incidents involving women who used a handgun to kill a stranger in self-defense versus female handgun homicides. The female victims murdered with a handgun, as well as women who killed a stranger in self-defense, tended to be disproportionately black. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, in 1998 12.1 percent of the U.S. population was black.14 However, 42 percent of women murdered with a handgun and 75 percent of women who killed a stranger in self-defense with a handgun were black. Additionally, all the intruders that the women justifiably killed and an overwhelming number of the offenders in female handgun homicides were male. Finally, for both criminal and justifiable homicides, the majority of victims and offenders were of the same race.
Black - 75%
Other - 0%
TABLE FOUR
Women who used a handgun to kill a stranger in self-defense
Strangers killed by a woman with a handgun in self-defense
Women murdered with a handgun
Offenders who murdered a woman with a handgun
Number of people
4
4
1,209
at least 1,11015
Average age
32.0
24.0
34.5
36.2
Race (where known)
White - 25%
White - 25%
Black - 75%
Other - 0%
White - 55% |
Black - 42%
Other - 3%
White - 53% |
Black - 45%
Other - 1%
Gender | . | Male - 100% |
Female - 0%
. |
Male - 96% |
Female - 4%
Percent of incidents that were intra-racial16 | 50% | 92% |
Conclusion
Currently, only a small minority of adult American women own a handgun. Before a woman purchases a handgun for protection, she must pause to consider whether the grave riskin 1998, a woman was 101 times more likely to be murdered with a handgun than to use a handgun to justifiably kill an attackeris one she is willing to accept.
All contents © 2001 Violence Policy Center
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Bottom line (reiterating some of the above arguments):
1) The stats only cite women with guns that have killed their assailant. No mention of simply scaring them off, winging them, and women that simply wouldn't want to go through the hassle of reporting such a confrontation to the police.
2) The stats presented show women killed with guns, but the implication seems to be that these women were killed because they had no gun, i.e. were defenseless, and therefore died as a result. How many would have died if they could not defend themselves with a firearm?
The level of dishonesty in this article would prevent it from publication in a decent peer reviewed journal, but is probably just fine for our esteemed press!
They compare killings in self defense by women who have handguns with killings of all women by handguns!!! Is that slanted or what?
Properly, they'd be comparing killings by women who do own handguns against murders of women who do have handguns. (Women who do have handguns will effectively protect themselves at X rate.) Then they'd compare that with killings by women who don't have handguns with murders of women who don't have handguns.(Women who don't have handguns effectively protect themselves at X rate.)
I believe they'll discover that women who do have handguns protect themselves at a much greater rate than those women who do not have handguns.
1) Only 6.6 percent of women own handguns.
2) Only 12 people were killed by women using handguns in self-defense.
3) 1209 women were killed with handguns.
What can we conclude from these facts? Nothing logically.
The conclusion that women are better off without handguns is ludicrous.
Would the 12 women who killed attackers have been better off if they had not had a handgun?
Would the 1209 women murdered with handguns have been worse off if they had a handgun?
Obviously not in both those cases.
What about instances where the attacker was merely wounded by a woman with a handgun in self-defense? No statistics presented.
What about the instances where the attacker fled after the woman made the gun's presence known by revealing it? No statistics presented.
This is akin to stating that:
1) 16 Hospitals in Arizona have rattlesnake anti-venom
2) 4 cases of rattlesnake bites were treated with Anti-venom in Arizona last year
3) 300 people a year die of poison snake bites worldwide
and concluding that rattlesnake anti-venom is useless in fighting the scourge of poisonous snake bites and should be done away with.
We are keeping ours too--practice with them every weekend that weather permits!
3 women--one Glock, one Mossberg, one Ruger: any questions?
Here is a link for some great reading for and by women with guns--be sure to catch "Lessons in Reality: Bitches With Guns" http://www.gunowners.org/womensvoice.htm
(sorry, you'll have to copy and paste URL)
website. You hear that everyone? The VPC would rather see you strangled to death in a dark alley than standing with a smoking handgun over the bleeding corpse of your would-be murderer. Any rational person should find this intensely offensive.
They can't afford to let up, though. If they even allow a hint that our side may actually have some legitimacy, that might start the public thinking. And they can't have that.
First they say how few women own handguns and then they say how seldom women are able to defend themselves with handguns. Sounds like their conclusions from these statistics are 180 degress from my own.
Bingo! The logical inconsistency of their arguments just shines through. It also excludes all the women whose lives were saved by displaying a handgun, all the women who were not assaulted for fear thereof. It also assumes that all the women killed by handguns would not have been killed otherwise. Many would have died from beatings and stabbings otherwise.
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