The Role of Firearms in the Black Femicide Crisis

Gun violence plays a central role in the ongoing Black femicide crisis in the United States. Firearms kill Black women at rates no other weapon comes close to.¹ Nearly three out of four Black femicide victims die by gunshot. That proportion has climbed 24% since 2011. Guns may not cause femicide. But they determine who survives it.

Table of Contents

• The Impact of Firearms on Black Femicide
• Firearms Exacerbate Intimate Partner Violence
• The Prevalence of Handguns in Black Femicide
• Black Women vs. White Women: The Firearm Gap
• Firearms Multiply the Lethality of Coercive Control for Black Women
• What Policy Can Do
• Further Reading
• Resources

The Impact of Firearms on Black Femicide

Femicide takes many forms. However, one weapon dominates all others. Firearms account for three quarters of all Black femicide deaths.^{2 3 4} In fact, no other method of killing even comes close. Furthermore, the firearm share has grown every decade.⁵ It grew from 51% in 2011 to 74.7% in 2023.⁶ That is not a coincidence. It is the documented result of gun proliferation, weakened firearm restrictions, and the intersection of coercive control with legal gun access.⁷

Importantly, research confirms that guns do not protect women from gender-based violence. Instead, they guarantee that when violence occurs, it is fatal.^{8 9} A firearm in an abusive household often shifts the outcome from assault to death.¹⁰ For this reason, it’s essential to understand the method of killing in order to grasp why Black femicide rates remain so high–and what specific policy interventions could reduce them.

Firearms Exacerbate Intimate Partner Violence

In 2011, firearms killed 51% of Black femicide victims.¹¹ By 2023, that figure jumped to 74.7%.¹² That 24-point climb over twelve years is one of the most striking trends in femicide data. No other method of killing increased comparably. Meanwhile, the firearm share for white femicide victims also rose–but from a lower base, and more slowly.

Additionally, the Giffords Law Center documents that gun femicide rates for Black women and girls rose 44% between 2019 and 2023.¹³ That four-year surge mirrors the pandemic escalation documented in our article Black Femicide Trends 2020–2025: The Impact of COVID-19.¹⁴ Indeed, data shows that the increase in Black femicide during the coronavirus pandemic was overwhelmingly driven by firearm violence.¹⁵ The chart below maps the full trajectory from 2011 to 2023.

The Prevalence of Handguns in Black Femicide

Within the firearms category, handguns dominate. In the United States of America, 61.5% of Black femicide firearm victims were killed with a handgun in 2023–299 of the 486 gun deaths.^{16 17} Rifles and shotguns account for a small fraction. This matters for policy. Handguns are the firearms most commonly involved in the violence that occurs on the coercive control continuum. Moreover, they are the weapon type most easily concealed, most quickly accessible, and most directly targeted by domestic violence firearm restriction laws.

Furthermore, the Violence Policy Center documents a specific pattern.¹⁸ The number of Black women shot and killed by a husband or intimate partner (214 victims) was more than three and a half times the total number killed by male strangers using all weapons combined (58 victims).¹⁹ A gun in an abusive intimate relationship is not protection. It can be a death sentence–especially in the context of racialized gender violence.

Black Women vs. White Women: The Firearm Gap

Firearms kill a higher proportion of Black femicide victims than white femicide victims. In fact, 74.7% of Black femicide victims died by gunshot in 2023, compared to 61.0% of white femicide victims.²⁰ That 14-point gap reflects multiple compounding factors.²¹ For example, Black women are more likely to live in communities with higher rates of firearm availability.²² They are also less likely to have access to the legal- and financial resources needed to separate from an abusive partner who possesses a firearm.²³

Furthermore, systemic failures in domestic violence firearm relinquishment enforcement compound the risk.²⁴ Law enforcement agencies inconsistently implement laws requiring domestic abusers to surrender firearms.²⁵ Black women are less likely to see those laws enforced on their behalf. As a result, the firearms remain in the home.

Firearms Multiply the Lethality of Coercive Control for Black Women

Domestic violence and firearms form a documented lethal combination.²⁶ Research by Campbell et al. establishes that the presence of a firearm in an abusive relationship raises the risk of femicide by 500%.²⁷ Furthermore, researchers identify five specific situations that dramatically increase femicide risk.^{28 29} Each involves a firearm. Each is disproportionately present in Black women’s domestic violence experiences.

What Policy Can Do

The firearm data is not merely descriptive. It is prescriptive. Three evidence-based interventions target the specific dynamics this data reveals.³⁰ Each has documented effectiveness. Each faces political resistance. Each is disproportionately important to Black women’s survival.

• Domestic violence firearm surrender laws – Federal law prohibits domestic abusers from possessing firearms. However, surrender enforcement is inconsistent. States with strong relinquishment enforcement see measurable reductions in intimate partner femicide rates.³¹
• Extreme Risk Protection Orders (ERPOs) – ERPOs allow courts to temporarily remove firearms from individuals showing warning signs of violence.^{32 33} Research confirms they reduce firearm homicide. Black women are among the primary beneficiaries.³⁴
• Universal Background Checks – Private sale loopholes allow domestic abusers to acquire firearms without background checks. Closing those loopholes reduces firearm availability to convicted abusers–the precise perpetrator profile this data documents.³⁵

Further Reading

• The Global Femicide Crisis: A Woman Is Killed Every 10 Minutes
• National Femicide Rates in the United States
• The Alarming Rate of Black Femicide
• Black Femicide Trends 2020-2025: The Impact of COVID-19
• Black Femicide: Perpetrator Relationship Data
• Black Femicide: State-by-State Disparities
• The Global Femicide Legislation Index
• The Coercive Control Legislation Global Index

Resources

1. Brady: United Against Gun Violence. (2025). The disproportionate impact of gun violence on Black Americans. ↩︎
2. Wakefield, M. (2026). Black Femicide: Perpetrator Relationship Data. Narcissistic Abuse Rehab. ↩︎
3. Wiens, T. (2023). When Men Murder Women: An Analysis of 2023 Homicide Data. Violence Policy Center.  ↩︎
4. Mithani, J. (2025). Shooting his partner, then himself: How firearms access fuels domestic violence tragedies. The 19th. ↩︎
5. Wiens, T. 2023.  ↩︎
6. Ibid. ↩︎
7. Nguyen, A. and Drane, K. (2025). Gun violence in Black communities. Giffords Law Center To Prevent Gun Violence. ↩︎
8. Websdale, Neil & Ferraro, Kathleen & Barger, Steven. (2019). The domestic violence fatality review clearinghouse: introduction to a new National Data System with a focus on firearms. Injury Epidemiology.  ↩︎
9. Geller, L.B., Booty, M. & Crifasi, C.K. (2021). The role of domestic violence in fatal mass shootings in the United States, 2014–2019. Injury Epidemiology. ↩︎
10. Giffords Law Center (n.d.). Domestic Violence & Firearms. Giffords Law Center To Prevent Gun Violence. ↩︎
11. Nguyen and Drane. 2025.. ↩︎
12. Ibid. ↩︎
13. Ibid. ↩︎
14. Wakefield, M. (2026). Black Femicide Trends 2020–2025: The Impact of COVID-19. Narcissistic Abuse Rehab. ↩︎
15. Ibid. ↩︎
16. Wiens, T. 2023.  ↩︎
17. Waller, B.Y., Joseph, V.A., & Keyes, K.M. (2024). Racial inequities in homicide rates and homicide methods among Black and White women aged 25–44 years in the USA, 1999–2020: A Cross-Sectional Time Series Study. The Lancet. ↩︎
18. Wiens. 2023. ↩︎
19. Ibid. ↩︎
20. Brady. 2025. ↩︎
21. Campbell, J. C., Webster, D., Koziol-McLain, J., Block, C., Campbell, D., Curry, M. A., Gary, F., Glass, N., McFarlane, J., Sachs, C., Sharps, P., Ulrich, Y., Wilt, S. A., Manganello, J., Xu, X., Schollenberger, J., Frye, V., & Laughon, K. (2003). Risk factors for femicide in abusive relationships: Results from a multisite case control study. American Journal of Public Health, 93(7), 1089–1097. https://doi.org/10.2105/ajph.93.7.1089 ↩︎
22. Nguyen and Drane, 2025. ↩︎
23. Wakefield. 2024. ↩︎
24. Waller et al. 2024. ↩︎
25. Waller et al. 2024. ↩︎
26. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2023). WONDER: Wide-ranging online data for epidemiologic research. ↩︎
27. Campbell et al. 2003. ↩︎
28. Ibid. ↩︎
29. Waller et al. 2024. ↩︎
30. Diez, C., Kurland, R. P., Rothman, E. F., Bair-Merritt, M., Fleegler, E., Xuan, Z., Siegel, M., & Hemenway, D. (2017). State intimate partner violence–related firearm laws and intimate partner homicide rates in the United States, 1991 to 2015. Annals of Internal Medicine, 167(8), 536–543. ↩︎
31. Diez et al. 2017. ↩︎
32. Giffords law Center. (n.d.) ↩︎
33. Nguyen and Drane. 2025. ↩︎
34. Diez et all. 2017. ↩︎
35. Nguyen and Drane. 2025. ↩︎