press
Washington, D.C., March 6, 2020 - In recognition of International Women’s Day on Sunday, March 8, Brady today endorses six congresswomen, Reps. Rosa DeLauro (CT-03), Veronica Escobar (TX-16), Lizzie Fletcher (TX-07), Mary Gay Scanlon (PA-05), Kim Schrier (WA-08), Abigail Spanberger (VA-07), Maxine Waters (CA-43), and Susan Wild (PA-07).
Brady President Kris Brown explained:
“In the fight to end gun violence, women leaders like Reps. DeLauro, Escobar, Fletcher, Scanlon, Schrier, Spanberger, Waters, and Wild are essential champions and clear voices for common-sense change. We know that women are disproportionately affected by the gun violence epidemic in our country. In recognition of Women’s History Month and International Women’s Day, we must never lose sight of that reality. Thankfully, we know that these women are leading the fight to end that epidemic. Brady is proud to endorse them for re-election in 2020.”
International Women’s Day traces its roots to the early 20th Century and has been officially recognized by the United Nations since 1977, celebrating the role and importance of women around the world, while spotlighting the progress still needed to achieve equality. It acknowledges that, to quote a famous American, “Women’s Rights are Human Rights.”
In the United States, where we know that women are uniquely and disproportionately affected by gun violence, those human rights are being violated. Studies comparing the United States and 22 other high income nations have found that, as recently as 2010, 90 percent of all women killed with guns were in the United States. The United States is party to numerous treaties that secure the rights to life, security of person and to be free from racial and gender-based discrimination among many others.
If we accept that women’s rights are human rights and that all humans have a right to live: we must acknowledge that the gun violence epidemic in the United States violates those rights. This is a human rights crisis.
Of course, no discussion of the intersection of gun violence and gender is accurate without discussion of intimate partner violence (IPV). One of the most pressing and often overlooked facets of the gun violence epidemic. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that approximately a quarter of women in the United States experience “contact sexual violence, physical violence, and/or stalking by an intimate partner during their lifetime.”
Like all violence, the presence of a gun in a situation involving intimate partner violence makes these already tragic situations more deadly. Data has shown that in the United States, the presence of a gun in these situations corresponds to a 500 percent higher chance that a woman will be murdered.
Brown concluded:
“It is essential that we acknowledge the unique toll that gun violence has on women in America. It is likewise essential that we look and listen to proven women leaders like Reps. DeLauro, Escobar, Fletcher, Scanlon, Schrier, Spanberger, Waters, and Wild. We need their leadership in Washington to help address this crisis.”
Given the urgent need for federal action to reform our nation’s gun laws and to reduce gun violence, Brady will continue to issue endorsements for the U.S. House of Representatives, U.S. Senate and state and local offices ahead of the 2020 elections.
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Brady has one powerful mission — to unite all Americans against gun violence. We work across Congress, the courts, and our communities with over 90 grassroots chapters, bringing together young and old, red and blue, and every shade of color to find common ground in common sense. In the spirit of our namesakes Jim and Sarah Brady, we have fought for over 45 years to take action, not sides, and we will not stop until this epidemic ends. It’s in our hands.