The majority of gunshot victims are men and the vast majority of those who make, sell, buy or misuse weapons are men. Yet women and girls pay a disproportionate price for the lack of controls on today's billion-dollar trade in arms. Women are particularly at risk of certain crimes because of their gender - crimes such as violence in the home, and rape. But women are not just victims of guns: they are survivors, carers, activists, and sometimes even encourage the demand.
Watch a flash animation about the impact of guns on women’s lives in English, French, Spanish, Arabic, Japanese or Portuguese.
In 2005, IANSA and its partners in the Control Arms Campaign joined Amnesty International’s Stop Violence Against Women Campaign to focus on the impact of guns on women’s lives. The campaign report, The Impact of Guns on Women’s Lives highlights how a gun in the home makes a woman less safe:
- An attack with a gun is 12 times more likely to end in death than an attack with other weapons;
- In South Africa, a woman is shot dead by a current or former partner every 18 hours;
- In the USA, a gun in the home increases the risk that someone in the household will be murdered by 41%; but increases the risk for women by 272%;
- In France and South Africa, one in three women killed by their husbands are shot; in the USA this rises to two in three;
- Family killings are one category of homicides where women outnumber men as victims with her partner or male relative the most likely murderer.
Download the full report in English, French, Spanish or Portuguese.
Click here to support the campaign to stop gun violence against women |
