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Domestic Violence and Firearms

FAQs – Frequently Asked Questions

Need Immediate help? Please visit the National Domestic Violence Hotline.

What is the connection between firearms and domestic violence?

When firearms are involved or easily accessible in intimate partner violence incidents, it can be fatal. In many cases of intimate partner violence involving a firearm, there are additional tragic casualties beyond the victim in the abusive relationship, including children, friends, family members, colleagues, etc. In addition to being deadly, firearms are used to coerce partners from leaving an abusive relationship or reporting abuse.

Consider the following:

  • Nearly 1 million women report being shot, and 4.5 million women report being threatened with a firearm by an intimate partner. 
  • In intimate partner violence, the risk of death is five times greater when a firearm is present. 
  • There is a 31 percent increase in the chance of an additional person being murdered with a firearm during a domestic violence incident compared with stranger-to-stranger violence.
  • More than 2,400 females were killed by males in 2022, and of these, 87.5% knew their killer, and firearms were used in 66% of the attacks.

What are the equity implications of this connection?

Even though intimate partner violence (IPV) affects women across racial and ethnic groups and socioeconomic status, historically marginalized women are at greatest risk of experiencing IPV in their lifetimes: 

Compared to white women, Black women are four times more likely to be fatally shot by an intimate partner. Younger Black women ages 18 to 34 years are at the greatest risk. They are seven times more likely to be shot and killed by an intimate partner than white women in the same age group. Young Hispanic females are nearly two times more likely to be murdered by firearm than their white counterparts.

Besides the intimate partner, who else is harmed in armed domestic violence situations?

What has been done to address lethal domestic violence?

Many states have passed laws to remove firearms from those named in a Domestic Violence Restraining Order (DVRO), and in 2024, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of the constitutionality of these laws (United States v. Rahimi). Although many states have these laws, enforcement is critical to ensure domestic violence perpetrators do not have access to firearms while the order is in place. While these laws are critical and should be enforced, these laws are serving as an intervention aimed at mitigating harm to the protected party and not necessarily preventing domestic violence in the first place.

What more can be done to address lethal domestic violence??

While there have been efforts to mitigate lethal domestic violence through state temporary firearm removal laws, more needs to be done to prevent lethal domestic violence. Organizations working at the community level are making significant strides in addressing and preventing lethal domestic violence by fostering conversations with families and communities, including men who have a history of IPV. One such organization is the Positive Results Center, which addresses the root causes of violence from both cultural and age-based perspectives. Their approach focuses on preventing and ending teen dating violence, domestic violence, sexual assault, and other forms of interpersonal harm. Through culturally relevant workshops that promote healthy relationships and leadership development, they not only educate but empower young people and families.

What are the data gaps, and what does the existing data on DV firearm violence tell us?

  • In California, and likely for the rest of the country, domestic violence-related firearm deaths appear to be severely undercounted. For the National Violent Death Reporting System (NVDRS), considered the best data source for all firearm-related deaths, local counties are responsible for reporting and disaggregating which firearm homicides are domestic violence-related and those that are not. With the exception of just two reporting counties in California, the vast majority of counties show very few or no firearm deaths related to domestic violence. National research estimates that at least 9.5–15.6% of all homicides in the U.S. have intimate partner violence as a contributing factor. 
  • Hope and Heal Fund is pushing for more accurate, disaggregated domestic violence firearm homicide data so that advocates, community leaders, and policymakers can better understand the gravity of the problem and focus on communities that have higher rates of IPV-related firearm homicides.

In addition to physical harm to partners in domestic violence situations, what are the other effects of firearms?

  • Domestic violence perpetrators often use the mere presence of a firearm to coerce, threaten, and terrorize their victims, inflicting enormous psychological damage. Perpetrators’ previous threats with a firearm and threats to kill their partners are both predictors of intimate partner homicide.
  • In a study of a year of 911 calls to Philadelphia police for domestic violence, 69% of the time, firearms were used as a method for intimidation, and the study found that fear is substantially higher when a gun is used to threaten a victim. When establishing credibility in a police report, fear is important to record in the absence of physical injury. Medicine, public health, and law enforcement usually focus on physical injury, so data on guns as threats have been largely invisible in those fields.

What is the difference between GVROs (Gun Violence Restraining Order) and DVROs (Domestic Violence Restraining Order)?

  • DVRO laws offer multiple protections through provisions that order no contact with a specific individual, to stay away, move out, attend counseling, and prohibit firearms, among others. 
  • GVROs offer one type of protection — they address access to firearms for individuals at risk of violence to themselves or others. 
  • DVROs and GVROs are both civil orders.

For more information on this topic and the Preventing & Reducing Gun Violence Injuries and Fatalities toolkit, please visit the website of the California Partnership to End Domestic Violence (the project was supported by the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services).