Women & Guns: A Complicated and Changing Relationship

The latest issue of Vital City, “Women & Guns: A Complicated and Changing Relationship,” is now live. Read the full volume here.

The issue was co-edited by Kerri Raissian of the Yale School of Public Health and Jennifer Dineen of UConn.

Join Yale School of Public Health for a Webinar

To go deeper, we invite you to a webinar on Wednesday, October 21st, from 12:30 to 1:30 p.m. ET, to dig into four of the issue’s articles that focus on women, guns, and domestic violence. RSVP here.

Why This Issue Matters

Conversations about guns, including those about policy and injury prevention, tend to center on men’s experiences. That focus is understandable, since most firearm injury victims are men. But it leaves out a great deal.

As the editors write in their introduction:

“Mostly, but not only — and the way guns shape women’s lives often falls away from the conversation altogether. This issue of Vital City attempts to serve as a corrective. We ask readers to consider the unique impact and ways that women interact with or are harmed by firearms and to then consider solutions….

When we start to see guns through women’s eyes, the policy conversation changes. It changes the strategy considerations for preventing violence and for educating gun owners… Our goal is to spark future research and data collection and to highlight what policymakers can do now as well as ultimately, finding well-tailored interventions that reduce adverse outcomes (like fear, injury and death) and promote positive outcomes (like safer firearm ownership, health and well-being).”

What’s Inside

The issue is organized into four sections:

What We Know and Don’t Know
When Guns Harm Women
When Women Wield Guns
The Culture Around Us

Whether you are a researcher, policymaker, advocate, or simply someone who wants a fuller picture of how firearms affect people’s lives, this issue offers a new lens on a familiar debate. Read the full issue now.