Governor should ‘Choose Respect,’ not hypocrisy

To the editor:

I am concerned that the hypocrisy represented by our governor Sean Parnell reaches its epitome in his “Choose Respect” PR stunt concerning domestic violence and crimes against women while supporting unfettered gun ownership.

He is the master of hypocrisy, but this irks me more than most.

Alaska has both the highest incidence of gun violence and the highest incidence of violence against women and the highest incidence of the combination guns used against women — but let’s just take some old and much lower national facts (from the FBI and Violence Prevention Center).

• In 2000, in homicides where the weapon was known, 50 percent (1,342 of 2,701) of female homicide victims were killed with a firearm. Of those female firearm homicides, 1,009 women (75 percent) were killed with a handgun.

• More than five times as many women were murdered by an intimate acquaintance (605) than by a stranger (113) in the year 2000. Additionally, while firearm homicides involving male victims were mostly intra-gender, 95 percent of female firearm homicide victims were murdered by a male.

• A 1997 study that examined the risk factors for violent death for women in the home found that when there were one or more guns in the home, the risk of suicide among women increased nearly five times and the risk of homicide increased more than three times. The increased risk of homicide associated with firearms was attributable to homicides at the hands of a spouse, intimate acquaintance or close relative.

• An analysis of female domestic homicides (a woman murdered by a spouse, intimate acquaintance or close relative) showed that prior domestic violence in the household made a woman 14.6 times more likely, and having one or more guns in the home made a woman 7.2 times more likely, to be the victim of such a homicide.

Having a gun in the home makes it three times more likely that you or someone you care about will be murdered by a family member or intimate partner.

Governor, if you choose respect you must be for gun controls, period!

Gregory Gusse

Butte