December 14, 2015
Top Ten Gun Ownership per capita in the USA
- Wyoming: 195.7 firearms per 1,000 people. (Population 586,107)
- District of Columbia: 66.4 firearms per 1,000 people. (672,228)
- Arkansas: 41.6 firearms per 1,000 people. (2,978,000)
- New Mexico: 40.5 firearms per 1,000 people. (2,085,000)
- Virginia: 30.1 firearms per 1,000 people. (8,383,000)
- Idaho: 24.2 firearms per 1,000 people. (1,655,000)
- Alabama: 20 firearms per 1,000 people. (4,859,000)
- Nevada: 19.5 firearms per 1,000 people. (2,891,000)
- Alaska: 15.2 firearms per 1,000 people. (738,432)
- Louisiana: 15.1 firearms per 1,000 people. (4,671,000)
In the early hours of July 9, 2012, (click here) Korinda Rodriguez and her husband, Jeffrey, prepared to leave their home in Reno to go to work at a local newspaper, where they were both employed. As they got ready, the couple began to argue. They had fought in the past but on this particular morning, Korinda threatened to leave Jeffrey. In separate cars, Jeffrey followed Korinda as she drove to work. When she tried to speed away from him, he became enraged and, on the median of U.S. 395, he used his vehicle to run her off the road.
As she stood beside her car, threatening to call the police, Jeffrey drew his gun.
By the time the police arrived at the scene, it was too late. Jeffrey had shot Korinda twice, killing her, before opening fire at passing vehicles. While there was nothing anyone could do to save Korinda’s life at that point, her murder was not inevitable and represented, among other things, the failure of state gun laws to protect her....
...Preventing abusers from accessing firearms saves women’s lives, and the circumstances of Korinda’s death — shot to death by an intimate partner — are not uncommon in Nevada. To better assess how these crimes occur, Everytown partnered with the Nevada Network Against Domestic Violence to compile a comprehensive database of intimate gun homicides in the state over a five-year period (2010 through 2014). This research — the most in-depth of its kind for the state — gives policymakers the measure of these recurrent crimes:
- Women in Nevada are 65 percent more likely to be shot to death by intimate partners than women nationwide, according to an Everytown analysis of FBI data. In fact, Nevada has the fifth highest rate of domestic violence gun murder of any state in the country.1
- Everytown identified 46 domestic violence gun homicides in Nevada over the five-year period. During the shootings the perpetrators also shot 10 additional victims — friends, family members, and children — killing six of them, two of whom were children.
- In addition to those who were killed or injured, at least 20 children witnessed or were present for the shootings. In fact, at least 39 percent of the murders took place in the presence of other individuals, demonstrating the devastating impact these homicides had on the children, families, and community members present during the shootings.
- There were ample indications that the perpetrators posed a risk to their partners. More than one in four shooters had a criminal record that prohibited them from possessing firearms — the majority due to a prior domestic violence crime.
- Of seven homicides committed by people barred from possessing firearms where the source of the gun could be determined, two obtained them in an unlicensed transfer.
- After murdering their intimate partners, nearly two-thirds of the offenders killed themselves, all but one with a firearm.
These murders and the data drawn from them shine a light on fatal domestic violence inNevada—and illuminate solutions that may prevent future abusers from obtaining firearms and causing further deaths. The incidents documented in this report vividly illustrate that Nevada needs an improved approach to addressing the threat gun violence poses for victims of domestic violence....
