As has been the case for the last nine years, Tennessee is once again in the top ten states for women murdered by men, according to the The Violence Policy Center. Today, the organization released its annual report When Men Murder Women. Based on 2017 data from the FBI Supplemental Homicide Report, Tennessee ranked fifth in the nation, tied with South Carolina. Tennessee was ranked fifth in last year’s report as well.

“This is a sad reminder of the very real and ongoing problem our state has with domestic and intimate partner violence,” said Beth Joslin Roth, policy director for The Safe Tennessee Project. “While our ranking remained the same, the percentage of women killed with guns went up significantly. The deadly intersection between guns and domestic violence is an all too common occurrence in Tennessee.”

In 2017, 76 percent of female victims murdered by men were shot and killed with guns. In 2016, 52 percent of the victims were killed with guns. As is always the case, almost all of the victims knew the man who killed them.
“Tennessee is consistently one of the most dangerous states in the country for women,” Roth said. “Yet, despite this dismal fact, our state has not only refused to strengthen laws to keep guns out of the hands of violent offenders, they actually voted to overturn a unanimously-passed 2017 law requiring convicted abusers to notify the court how they planned to dispossess any firearms in their possession. While we continue going in the wrong direction, women in Tennessee are being murdered by men at a rate of more than per week.”

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The homicide rate of women murdered by men in Tennessee has far outpaced the US rate for over a decade, but the difference has become more pronounced in recent years.

The When Men Murder Women report only addresses homicides, but each year, women are not just killed by men with guns, they are also injured, terrorized and intimidated by them. Abusers often use guns to threaten and control their victims, inflicting enormous psychological damage.

“Safe Tennessee joins with domestic violence prevention organizations, victims’ advocates, and law enforcement to call on legislators to support legislation that protects women,” Roth said. “Doing everything possible to keep guns out of the hands of abusers should be something on which we all agree”