Oct 5, 2026 · 1 hr 3 min · 12 segments
This week, we're discussing the growing phenomenon of female gun ownership. To dive into the demographic change and its fascinating implications, we have two academics who were involved in a…
Stephen GutowskiHostMargaret KelleyGuestKerri RaissianGuestSo, um, I should also say that while I currently reside in Connecticut and, and so privileged to work at Yale, I am really Uh, just a farm girl from Texas.
And so on any Saturday afternoon or evening, I've got my horns up, uh, rooting for my favorite college football team.
So this issue came about with my longtime colleague and co-editor, Jennifer Dineen, who's at the University of Connecticut.
Um, and you know, we had like-- we honestly, like we wrote a grant proposal that didn't go anywhere, which is like par for the course in academia, you write a thing and it doesn't go anywhere, um, about like women and guns and, um, a rise we were seeing in, in firearm suicide among women.
But in that, as we were writing that, we just noticed that so much of gun literature, studies, injury were focused on men, on men's experiences.
Like one of the first paragraphs in the journal is like, that makes some sense because about eighty-six percent of gun deaths in America happen to men, right? So they are by far and away, um, America's most likely victim of, of a gun death, defined as homicide, suicide, or sort of any other, any other way.
Um, but women in the United States still account for ninety-two percent of gun deaths among other developed countries, including the US, right? So like, this is an, an astronomically high thing that happens to women in the US as part of our American exceptionalism, if you will.
And so we were just really intrigued about why women are, are left out, um, of gun studies.
I also, you know, wanna say like, I'm a firearm owner as well, right? And I grew up around guns.
And so this is in no way, uh, you know, an attempt or, or anything like that to sort of think about, uh, firearm regulation, though there may be a place for that, but that was not the point of the issue.
The point of the issue is to think about really what the title says, Women and Guns: A Complicated and Changing Relationship.
We know that, you know, during the COVID time, you know, many of us have seen headlines that women's firearm own-- well, that ownership of guns went up.
Why-- You know, why? Um, and w- as I mentioned in the intro, my in-interest is in domestic violence.
Most women, when they die from a firearm, are more li-- or they die in the home, um, often related to a domestic or family violence incident.
Why? Why is that? Um, and, and most importantly, and what the issue is meant to do, is to engage people, to get people talking about this topic, to think about new ideas and interventions that we might try or evaluate, um, to allow women to exercise their constitutional rights if that's something that they wanna do, and be safe while doing it.
So, um, I should also say that while I currently reside in Connecticut and, and so privileged to work at Yale, I am really Uh, just a farm girl from Texas.
And so on any Saturday afternoon or evening, I've got my horns up, uh, rooting for my favorite college football team.
So this issue came about with my longtime colleague and co-editor, Jennifer Dineen, who's at the University of Connecticut.
Um, and you know, we had like-- we honestly, like we wrote a grant proposal that didn't go anywhere, which is like par for the course in academia, you write a thing and it doesn't go anywhere, um, about like women and guns and, um, a rise we were seeing in, in firearm suicide among women.
But in that, as we were writing that, we just noticed that so much of gun literature, studies, injury were focused on men, on men's experiences.
Like one of the first paragraphs in the journal is like, that makes some sense because about eighty-six percent of gun deaths in America happen to men, right? So they are by far and away, um, America's most likely victim of, of a gun death, defined as homicide, suicide, or sort of any other, any other way.
Um, but women in the United States still account for ninety-two percent of gun deaths among other developed countries, including the US, right? So like, this is an, an astronomically high thing that happens to women in the US as part of our American exceptionalism, if you will.
And so we were just really intrigued about why women are, are left out, um, of gun studies.
I also, you know, wanna say like, I'm a firearm owner as well, right? And I grew up around guns.
And so this is in no way, uh, you know, an attempt or, or anything like that to sort of think about, uh, firearm regulation, though there may be a place for that, but that was not the point of the issue.
The point of the issue is to think about really what the title says, Women and Guns: A Complicated and Changing Relationship.
We know that, you know, during the COVID time, you know, many of us have seen headlines that women's firearm own-- well, that ownership of guns went up.
Why-- You know, why? Um, and w- as I mentioned in the intro, my in-interest is in domestic violence.
Most women, when they die from a firearm, are more li-- or they die in the home, um, often related to a domestic or family violence incident.
Why? Why is that? Um, and, and most importantly, and what the issue is meant to do, is to engage people, to get people talking about this topic, to think about new ideas and interventions that we might try or evaluate, um, to allow women to exercise their constitutional rights if that's something that they wanna do, and be safe while doing it.
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