Gun violence in the United States is a public health crisis. Every day, more than 100 people are murdered with firearms, more than 200 are nonfatally injured, and more than 1,000 are threatened with guns. There are many forms of gun violence, each affecting communities differently, and women, in particular, are uniquely affected.
More than 11,000 women in the United States were killed with a gun between 2015 and 2019, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Every month, an intimate partner kills an average of 57 women with a firearm. The impact of gun violence against women goes beyond fatal encounters. A 2016 study found that nearly 1 million women alive at that time had been shot by an intimate partner, and 4.5 million women had been threatened with a firearm. Firearms have long been used as a tool of power and control to instill fear and inflict abuse on women—with women of color, people in the LGBTQ community, and women with disabilities being disproportionately affected.