New analysis shows Nevada has eighth highest rate of women murdered with guns and gun-murder rate of women in Nevada exceeds national average by 38 percent.
Las Vegas, Nevada — Today, the Center for American Progress and ProgressNow Nevada issued a first-of-its-kind examination of the scope of gun violence against women in Nevada. The state’s weak gun laws have left Nevada women highly vulnerable to violence by failing to require background checks for all guns sales and failing to ensure that dangerous domestic abusers and stalkers do not have easy access to guns.
The brief—which analyzed FBI and Center for Diseases Control and Prevention, or CDC, data—is released this week to coincide with the National Shooting Sports Foundation, or NSSF, annual trade show being held in Las Vegas. At the trade show, thousands of guns and gun enthusiasts will be descending on a state that has some of the most lax protections for women.
“Nevada’s women face some of the highest rates of gun homicide in the nation,” said Chelsea Parsons, CAP’s Vice President of Guns and Crime Policy. “Forty percent of the women murdered in Nevada are killed by an intimate partner, and half of those murders were committed with guns. Yet Nevada has done little to curtail domestic abusers and stalkers from gaining access to guns. Nevada needs to get serious about protecting women from gun violence by requiring background checks on all gun sales and keeping guns out of the hands of these dangerous people.”
“As the gun industry descends on Nevada this week to celebrate their firearms and the ‘protection’ they provide, today’s brief tells a very different story: that women in Nevada are at a greater risk of deadly gun violence than ever before,” said Annette Magnus, Executive Director of ProgressNow Nevada. “There is no sugarcoating it, Nevada is failing to protect women from domestic abusers and stalkers by not closing dangerous loopholes in our laws, and Nevadans need to understand the facts on the lethal combination of guns and domestic abuse. Action must be taken to reduce deadly gun violence against women.”
“Universal background checks are an essential mechanism to prevent firearms from getting into the hands of those already prohibited from having firearms,” said Lisa Lynn Chapman, Director of Community Relations at Safe Nest. “In jurisdictions that have universal background checks, domestic violence homicides are reduced by 38 percent. That means that as many as 11 lives are saved annually.”
The brief finds that:
- Nevada ranks eighth worst in the country for the rate at which women are murdered by guns.
- Women in Nevada face a higher risk of gun violence than men in the state: Gun murders of women in Nevada are 38.14 percent higher than the national average, while gun murders of men in the state are 2.66 percent lower than the national average.
- Between 2003 and 2012, 40 percent of women murdered in Nevada were killed by an intimate partner; of those killed by an intimate partner, 50 percent were killed with guns.
- 48.1 percent of women living in Nevada will experience rape, physical violence, and/or stalking by an intimate partner during their lifetime.
Click here to read the issue brief.