What you probably already know: Personal safety and protection have long been among the most common reasons people give for owning a firearm. Meanwhile, more women now own guns, and women make up a larger percentage of gun owners than in the past. A group of researchers led by Cassandra K. Crifasi set out to measure women’s perceptions about how gun ownership, for themselves personally and more broadly within the community, impacts personal safety. The results were broken down by women who own firearms, those who don’t but live in homes with them, and those with no household firearm access.
Why it matters: Out of the women surveyed:
• 41% reported that personally owning a gun would make them safer.
• 21% would feel safer if more people could legally carry guns.
However, perceptions of safety differed significantly between gun owners and nonowners. Among women who own firearms:
• 69.7% believe gun ownership makes them safer.
• 48.9% of nonowners living in homes with firearms agreed.
• Only 26% of nonowners with no household firearm access agreed.
On the question of more people legally carrying firearms:
• 35.3% of women who own firearms agreed this would make them safer.
• 22.2% of nonowners in homes with firearms agreed.
• 14.8% of nonowners with no household firearm access agreed.
What it means: The study shows how perceptions of risk and safety may drive guns sales among U.S. women as firearms makers targeting this growing customer group often focus on safety. Gun-owning women are more likely than nonowners to believe that their own guns make them safer. However, even among women who own firearms, only a small minority believe they would be safer if more people in their community carried guns outside the home. This suggests that many women may have the perception that firearms are protective in their own hands but potentially dangerous in the hands of others.
What happens next: According to the researchers, the firearms industry often promotes gun ownership as a way for women to protect themselves against unknown “others,” even though most female victims of homicide and rape know their attackers. The protection narrative also ignores data showing that firearm access is linked to increased risk of injury and death. To support informed firearms ownership, the researchers call for more study on the situations in which firearms may be dangerous or protective — or just perceived to be.
