Can we take a minute to appreciate how many women have protected themselves and others with firearms in the last two or so weeks? It’s basically a highlight real of just how important the right to keep and bear arms is for us, too. Tip of the DGU iceberg, but important:
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— Amy Swearer (@AmySwearer) August 14, 2023
The 13 cases over a roughly two-week period are just a snapshot of how many women likely used a firearm to defend themselves. Self-defense gun cases often go unreported by major news outlets. Many cases involve people brandishing their firearm to deter a potential criminal, which can go unreported to police, experts have previously highlighted to Fox News Digital.
Of the 13 cases compiled by [Heritage Foundation senior legal fellow Amy] Swearer, more than half involved a woman defending herself from her romantic partner or ex.
One such case in Texas involved a woman grabbing a pistol from her car’s console and firing a shot at her ex-boyfriend, who allegedly tried to shave her head with a pair of electric clippers on August 8, according to police. Another woman in Texas on July 30 pulled a firearm from her purse and shot her romantic partner in the face after he allegedly threatened her with a gun.
“A man who’d served 8 years in prison for domestic violence threatened to kill his wife during an ‘alcohol-fueled rage’ and went to get a gun. She apparently got to her gun first. He’s dead. She isn’t,” Swearer wrote of a case in Missouri that occurred on August 10. …
By gender, gun ownership is also booming among women. Between 2019 and 2021, as gun purchases exploded, about half of firearm customers were women, according to the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Women were the most likely new gun-owner demographic during those years, researchers found.
— Emma Colton in More Than a Dozen Women Used Firearms to Protect Against Violent Exes, Criminals Over 2-Week Stretch