The impact of guns on women's lives

Exploration of how guns uniquely affect the lives of women

Produced by: Amnesty International; International Action network on Small Arms; Oxfam International. 2005

This report looks at the impact on women of guns in the home, in communities and during and after conflict. In each of these contexts, it looks at violence committed with guns against women, the role women play in gun use, and the campaigns women are spearheading against gun violence.

The report also explores how guns affect women’s lives when they are not directly in the firing line, for instance when women become the main breadwinners and primary carers when male relatives are killed, injured or disabled by gun violence. Also, women are displaced and forced to flee their homes for an uncertain future, and displaced women often face starvation and disease as they struggle to fend for their families. And women, like men, are caught in the crossfire, both in times of war and of peace.