Women, Children, and Guns

With Patrick Carter, MD, Director, University of Michigan Institute for Firearm Injury Prevention 

Unregulated access to firearms – a reality across much of America -- is catastrophic for every American: every shooting has scores, even hundreds, of victims, as frequent, unpredictable exposure to vicarious violence generates fear and anxiety that we feel helpless to manage. But women and children are uniquely vulnerable because of the role of firearms in intimate partner violence. Abusers with firearms are five times more likely to kill their victims. Every month, an average of 57 women are shot and killed by an intimate partner. Nearly 6 million women alive today have reported being shot, shot at, or threatened with a gun by an intimate partner. Guns are a key instrument of terror and coercive control of women and children in their own homes. Furthermore, men with domestic violence histories commit the majority of mass shootings in America.

 Nearly half of new gun purchases since 2019 have been by women, who cite self-defense against a wide range of threats as their primary reason for buying a gun. But statistically, having a gun in your home is more dangerous for you and your family, doubling your risk of becoming a victim of homicide and tripling the risk of suicide, including by children in the home.

 What are our options for stemming the tide of gun violence in America, and protecting women and children from armed men in their homes? 

Speaker

Patrick Carter, MD, is an Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine (School of Medicine) and Health Behavior & Health Education (School of Public Health) at the University of Michigan. He is the Co-Director of the University of Michigan Institute for Firearm Injury Prevention, the Director of the CDC-funded University of Michigan Injury Prevention Center, and part of the leadership team for the NICHD-funded Firearm Safety among Children and Teens (FACTS) Consortium. Dr. Carter’s research concerns the development, testing, and implementation of Emergency Department- based interventions to decrease firearm violence, youth violence, and associated risk behaviors such as substance use among high‐risk urban youth populations. He recently served as the Chair of the ACEP Trauma and Injury Prevention Section of the American College of Emergency Physicians and currently serves as an Assistant Editor for the Annals of Emergency Medicine.