No, Guns Don't Make Women Safer

According to Ruth Marcus, the argument du jour against gun control—that women in particular need access to guns to protect themselves from violent, male criminals—is nothing but a "straw woman." The "argument would be powerful, if only it were true," Marcus writes in the Washington Post. "The facts suggest precisely the opposite."

Women tend to be victims of gun violence, notes Marcus, citing a study that women who have a gun in the home are three times more likely to be the victim of a homicide. And for abused women, that number rises to six times likelier. Nothing in current gun control proposals would prevent a woman from owning a gun to defend herself. But better background checks to get guns out of the hands of domestic abusers could actually save women. Click for her full column. (More Ruth Marcus stories.)