The circumstances of firearms violence also differ significantly between men and women. Compared to a man, a woman is far more likely to be killed by her spouse, an intimate acquaintance, or a family member than she is to be murdered by a stranger or an unidentified intruder. A Violence Policy Center analysis of Federal Bureau of Investigation data for single victim/single offender homicides in 1996 revealed that the number of females killed by their husband or intimate acquaintance using a firearm was more than four times higher than the total number of women murdered by male strangers using all other weapons combined. The FBI homicide data also revealed that in 1996 there were 398 women shot and killed by their husband or intimate acquaintance during the course of an argument�more than one woman murdered every day of the year.⁵² In 1996, firearms were the principal means of suicide used by white (40 percent) and African-American (47 percent) females.⁵³ The proportion of suicides involving firearms has also increased significantly over time among elderly white women.⁵⁴ The reality of firearms violence among women is detailed below.

Young Females

Firearms violence is most prevalent among young women. In 1996 homicide was the second leading cause of death among all young women 15 to 24 years of age�suicide trailed behind as the fourth leading cause of death in this age group.⁵⁵ The majority of these deaths (56.5 percent) can be attributed to firearms.⁵⁶

Homicide

Homicide, particularly firearms homicide, is affecting young, minority females in epidemic proportions, ranking in 1996 as one of the five leading causes of death for African-American and Hispanic females one to 44 years of age.⁵⁷ The firearms homicide rate for African-American females 15 to 19 years of age (9.9 per 100,000 in 1996 ) is nearly six times the rate among white females in the same age group (1.7 per 100,000 in 1996).⁵⁸

Unlike men, women are at an increased risk of firearms homicide by people known to them. A 1997 Archives of Internal Medicine study, �Risk Factors for Violent Death of Women in the Home,� found that when there were one or more guns in the home the risk of homicide increased more than three times. The increased risk of homicide associated with firearms was attributable to the homicides at the hands of a spouse, intimate acquaintance, or close relative.⁵⁹

Suicide

With the increased marketing of firearms�especially handguns�to women for self-defense, female patterns of suicide have changed. Previously, a general rule was that women attempted to kill themselves two to three times more often than men. Men, however, succeeded three times more often than women. The reason was that while men used guns, women traditionally used less lethal means. For example, in 1970 poisoning was the suicide method most commonly used by women. Over time this and other less lethal methods have decreased in inverse proportion to firearms use. Now, like men, women most often kill themselves with firearms.⁶⁰ The National Center for Health Statistics reports that for all female victims of suicide, the percentage using firearms to kill themselves went from 30 percent in 1970 to 40 percent in 1996.⁶¹

Elderly Females

Suicide

For older women, firearms have replaced poisoning as the most prevalent method of suicide. A 1996 study in Suicide and Life-Threatening Behavior found that in 1992 firearms accounted for 38 percent of all suicides among women 65 and older, compared to 28 percent in 1979. Firearms have been the most popular method of suicide among older women since 1982.⁶²

Studies of death certificates show that with increasing age, persons who commit suicide in the United States employ increasingly violent means to kill themselves. A 1991 Southern Medical Journal study by David Casey, MD, reviewed state death certificates over a two-year period and found that 96 percent of all elderly suicides were committed with such means as firearms, hanging, jumping, drowning, and burning.⁶³ It has been suggested that unlike some suicide gestures and attempts by younger persons�in which the objective is to change one's life, not end it�suicide attempts among the elderly appear to represent an authentic effort to end one's life.⁶⁴

Like homicides, most gun suicides are not committed with weapons purchased specifically for the attempt, but with firearms already available.⁶⁵ Susan Sorenson, PhD of the UCLA School of Public Health relates that in addition to increased access to more lethal methods for committing suicide, other explanations offered for the higher rates of suicide among the elderly include: living alone, which may delay discovery of the suicide attempt; declining health, which gives rise to chronic medical problems; organic mental dysfunction, which impairs judgment or the ability to generate alternative options; and greater premeditation about the action.⁶⁶

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