A Phony Pro-Gun Argument

WASHINGTON -- The latest weapon in the war against reasonable restrictions on access to guns is the straw woman. Don't fall for her.

This formulation would have you believe gun rights are women's rights, and that limits on guns would harm women disproportionately. The insinuation is that only insensitive men, who can't possibly identify with the vulnerable position in which women find themselves, would be foisting gun control on them.

"Guns make women safer," Gayle Trotter of the conservative Independent Women's Forum, told the Senate Judiciary Committee at its hearing on gun violence. "For women, the ability to arm ourselves for our protection is even more consequential than for men. Because guns are the great equalizer in a violent confrontation. As a result, we protect women by safeguarding our Second Amendment rights. Every woman deserves a fighting chance."

This argument would be powerful, if only it were true. The facts suggest precisely the opposite.

First, women are far more likely to be the victims of gun violence than to benefit from using a gun in self-defense.

Second, the restrictions under discussion would not harm women. They would either make women safer or, at the very least, not impede their ability to use guns in self-defense.

On the threat that guns pose to women, consider: Women are far less likely to be the victims of gun violence than men. But they are far moreÂ likely than men to be killed by someone they know, generally a spouse or partner.

Women with a gun in the home were nearly three times as likely to be the victim of homicide than women living in a home without firearms, according to a 2003 study in the Annals of Emergency Medicine.

"There's good evidence that a gun in the home increases the likelihood that a woman in the home will die," said David Hemenway, director of the Harvard Injury Control Research Center. Â "There is no evidence that a gun in the home is protective for the woman."

So much for guns making women safer. Still, the Second Amendment grants women as well as men the freedom to take the risk of having one at home.

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