Emily F. Rothman, MS¹, David Hemenway, PhD², Matthew Miller, MD, MPH, ScD¹, and Deborah Azrael, PhD¹. (1) Harvard Injury Control Research Center, Harvard School of Public Health, 677 Huntington Avenue, Boston, MA 02115, 617-983-1436, EmFaith@aol.com, (2) Health Policy and Management, Harvard University, 677 Huntington Avenue, Boston, MA 02115

Research has established that household gun-ownership is an important risk factor for intimate partner femicide. No studies to date have investigated whether household gun-ownership is also a risk factor for control of intimates through firearm-related intimidation. We analyzed data from 8,529 men enrolled in Massachusetts certified batterer intervention programs between 1999-2003 using multivariate methods. Twelve percent of the sample reported owning a gun during the past three years. Recent gun owners were 7.7 times more likely to have threatened their partner with a gun than non gun owners. Batterers reported using guns to threaten their partners in four ways including (a) threatening to shoot them, (b) cleaning, holding or loading a gun during an argument, (c) threatening to shoot a pet or person the victim cares about, and (d) shooting a gun during an argument with a victim. Identified risk markers for threatening an intimate partner with a gun include criminal behavior, substance abuse, homicidal behavior and gun ownership in the three years preceding assessment. Findings suggest that clinicians who come into contact with men who batter or their victims should screen for household firearm ownership, and that existing legal proscriptions against firearm ownership and/or possession by batterers should be consistently enforced and strengthened.

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