A Deadly Myth

The 1996 study Guns in America found that only 6.6 percent of adult American women owned a handgun—less than one out of every 10 women. But of these women, nearly 85 percent owned their handguns for self-defense—a 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 The answer, as revealed by unpublished Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) data, is hardly ever.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:

• women using a handgun to kill in self-defense to women murdered with a handgun;
  
  
• women using a handgun to kill an intimate acquaintance in self-defense to women murdered by an intimate acquaintance with a handgun; and,
  
  
• women using a handgun to kill a stranger in self-defense to women murdered with a handgun.

In 1998, for every time a woman used a handgun to kill in self-defense, 101 women were murdered with a handgun.

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]

TABLE ONE	Women who used a handgun to kill in self-defense	Attackers killed by a woman with a handgun in self-defense	Women murdered with a handgun	Those who murdered a woman with a handgun
Number of people	12	12	1,209	at least 1,1109
Average age	31.9	31.2	34.5	36.2
Race (where known)	White - 33% Black - 67% Other - 0%	White - 42% 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.

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% Black - 75% Other - 0%	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 risk—in 1998, a woman was 101 times more likely to be murdered with a handgun than to use a handgun to justifiably kill an attacker—is one she is willing to accept.

1. One example is an ad for Thunder Ranch, Inc., which provides "State of the art Firearms and Tactical training." The ad shows a woman dressed in a tight-fitting turtleneck and jeans, with a handgun holstered to her belt. The caption reads, "I go to Thunder Ranch. I refuse to be food for anybody!" (Women and Guns, May-June 1999, 55). An ad for Hidden Holster™ shows a woman asleep in her bed, dressed in a lacy negligee. Attached to her mattress is a handgun in a holster. The headline states, "Hidden Holster™ Keeps Your Handgun Ready!" while the text reads, "When in bed how accessible is your handgun? Do you know exactly where it is? Can you reach it without making a sudden move that could alert an intruder?" (Women and Guns, March-April 1998, 5). An ad for handgun manufacturer Beretta shows a pistol which fits "in the palm of your hand." The handgun is held in a woman's hand with manicured red fingernails and a delicate gold bracelet. (Women and Guns, March-April 1999, 33). An ad for New England Firearms shows a small, five-shot handgun—the "NEF® LADY ULTRA™ 32 H&R MAGNUM: The Sensible Choice for Personal Protection." The text reads, "Violent crime against women is on the rise—so you deserve the ability to protect yourself and your family. Increasingly, women are choosing firearms for personal defense; we hope you'll never need to use one, but you know you can't take chances, either." (Women and Guns, February 1997, 9).
   
   
2. Data from Tom W. Smith and Robert J. Smith, "Changes in Firearms Ownership Among Women, 1980-1994," The Journal of Criminal Law & Criminology 86, no.1 (1995): 133-149. The article did not provide data for the missing years. Additional data, 1996 to 1998, from phone conversation with Tom W. Smith, September 20, 2000. Statistical analysis applies only to years 1980 to 1994.
   
   
3. Philip J. Cook et al., Guns in America: Results of a Comprehensive National Survey on Firearms Ownership and Use (Washington, D.C.: Police Foundation, 1996), 33, 38.
   
   
4. A 1986 New England Journal of Medicine study entitled "Protection or Peril? An Analysis of Firearm-Related Deaths in the Home" found that for every time a firearm was used in a self-defense homicide, 37 lives were lost in gun suicides, 4.6 lives were lost in gun homicides, and 1.3 lives were lost via unintentional gun deaths. More specifically, handguns were used in 70.5 percent of the deaths. A 1998 Journal of Trauma study entitled "Injuries and Death Due to Firearms in the Home" looked at both fatal and non-fatal repercussions of having a firearm in the home and found that, for every time a gun in the home was used in a self-defense shooting, there were four unintentional shootings, seven criminal assaults or homicides, and 11 attempted or completed suicides.
   
   
5. Although the SHR offers no information on non-lethal self-defense firearm use, the Bureau of Justice Statistics' National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) does. What is most striking about the information contained in the survey is how rarely firearms are used for self-defense. The April 1994 Justice Department study Guns and Crime revealed that according to the NCVS only about one percent (62,200) of all victims of violence claimed to have used a firearm of any type (handgun, rifle, or shotgun) to defend themselves. Another 20,300 reported using a firearm to defend their property during a theft, household burglary, or motor vehicle theft. (It should be noted however, that all self-defense uses were defined by the survey respondent, and would therefore include all perceived threats as well as legitimate threats.) Also, in these instances it is not known whether the gun was used successfully to stop the crime. In comparison, the study reported, offenders armed with handguns alone committed a record 931,000 violent crimes in 1992. Michael R. Rand, "Handgun Victimization, Firearm Self-Defense, and Firearm Theft: Guns and Crime," Crime Data Brief (Washington, D.C.: Bureau of Justice Statistics, U.S. Department of Justice, April 1994).
   
   
6. FBI Supplementary Homicide Report data, 1978-1998. In 1998,there were 191 civilian justifiable homicides in the United States according to the FBI SHR. Of these, 145 involved a handgun. Of these handgun justifiable homicides, 12 were committed by women, 121 were committed by men, and 12 were committed by people whose gender was not reported.
   
   
7. According to the FBI's Uniform Crime Report, justifiable homicide is defined as: "The killing of a felon, during the commission of a felony, by a private citizen."
   
   
8. 1998 is the most recent year available for FBI Supplementary Homicide Report data.
   
   
9. Number is unknown because many women were murdered by an unknown number of offender(s). Additionally, some women were murdered by more than one offender. The minimum number is 1,110 offenders.
   
   
10. Numbers in this category are based on single victim/single offender incidents only.
    
    
11. Intimate acquaintance is defined as a spouse, common-law spouse, ex-spouse, boyfriend or girlfriend, or homosexual lover.
    
    
12. Information regarding relationship of victim to offender was not available for the 99 women who were not listed as the first victim in a homicide (i.e., they were listed as the second or third victim in a homicide incident with multiple victims). Additionally, the relationship was categorized as unknown for 238 of the female victims who were the only or first victim in a homicide.
    
    
13. Information for the states of Florida, Kansas, and Wisconsin is not listed because they did not contribute their data to the FBI Supplementary Homicide Report in 1998.
    
    
14. "Resident Population Estimates of the United States by Sex, Race, and Hispanic Origin: April 1, 1990 to November 1, 1999," (U.S. Census Bureau) downloaded April 4, 2000, from www.census.gov/population/estimates/nation/intfile3-1.txt; INTERNET.
    
    
15. Number is unknown because many women were murdered by an unknown number of offender(s). Additionally, some women were murdered by more than one offender. The minimum number is 1,110 offenders.
    
    
16. Numbers in this category are based on single victim/single offender incidents only.