Mass Shootings Get All the Attention, But This Is Worse

Americans have been saddened by the recent mass shootings that have occurred in recent weeks across the country in Buffalo, Uvalde, and Highland Park.

But as much as these tragic events have seared our national consciousness and brought demands for action by our elected officials for appropriate gun legislation, there is a far worse aspect of the epidemic of gun violence that occurs day-in and day-out throughout the United States.

We are referring to the shooting of women by their domestic partners. Each and every year, 600 women are murdered with a gun by their partners. We’ll do the math for you — that works out to a woman who is shot and killed every 14 hours by her present or former significant other.

The statisticians also tell us that the possession of a gun by a domestic partner makes it five times more likely that a woman will be killed than if the domestic partner did not have a gun.

In short, the more guns there are, the more women who are murdered by their partners.

Yes, the shootings in schools and malls and supermarkets horrify us and make us feel not safe anywhere, even at a Fourth of July parade.

But the reality is that an American woman in a household with a handgun is far more at risk for being shot and killed than any of us by some random angry person with an AR-15.