Study Finds That More Gun Owners Mean More Domestic Homicides

A new study published Monday found that gun ownership is tied to domestic violence homicide in the U.S.

The study, published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, found that for every 10 percent increase in household gun ownership rates, there was a 13 percent increase in incidences of domestic firearm homicide. Unexpectedly, the report didn’t find similar links between gun ownership and any other type of homicide.

“It is women, in particular, who are bearing the burden of this increased gun ownership,” Aaron Kivisto, an associate professor of clinical psychology at the University of Indianapolis and the lead author of the study, told the New York Times.

Researchers analyzed data on homicide rates across the country from a number of different agencies between 1990 to 2016, and the study confirms the well-established connection between gun access and abusive relationships becoming deadly. Both men and women were at higher risk for domestic homicide when firearm ownership increased, but Dr. Kivisto said an important caveat is that,

“…whereas men are victims in about three out of four typical homicides that occur, it fully reverses when we are talking about intimate partner homicide,” Dr. Kivisto said. “Women are three in four victims of intimate partner homicide.”

The findings were released following a recent study in the American Journal of Public Health that found that victims were five times more likely to be killed if their abuser has access to a gun.

True to form, The National Rifle Association said that the study ignored certain factors that contribute to violence:

“The study fails to include factors that organizations like the F.B.I. recognize as contributing to violent crime,” Lars Dalseide, a spokesman for the N.R.A., said in a statement on Monday. “State funding of law enforcement and social services should be the most relevant factors considered when addressing domestic violence and this study fails to control for either.”

The research also found that in 2017, 926 of 1,527 women murdered by partners were killed with guns. Overall, there was a 26 percent increase in gun-related domestic killings between 2010 and 2017. Nevertheless, the NRA will fight until its last breath to keep abusers armed. America!