Double Bound Masculinity: The Complexity of Regulating Intimate Partner Violence with a Firearm

• In Event: 4104 - Sexual Violence and Intersectional Inequalities

Abstract

Each month in America, 50 women will die by a firearm used in an act of Intimate Partner Violence (IPV). The majority of mass shootings in America, defined by Everytown for Gun Safety as an incident resulting in four or more deaths, are acts of IPV with a firearm, killing predominately women and children. The gun violence prevention movement, legislators, and everyday citizens, however, largely ignore this type of mass shooting. I argue that their silence is because discussion about IPV with a firearm, and subsequent action to legislate and regulate, places a double bind on masculinity—regulating both the public (the Second Amendment) and private (home affairs) exercise. Using an understanding of male state creation (Nagel 1998; McClintock 1993; Vickers 2003), I build on existing gun violence literature that discusses firearms and citizenship (Burbick 2006; Melzer 2009; Light 2017; Dunbar-Ortiz 2018) to unpack this important understanding of why there is little action to address IPV with a firearm.

Author

• Elizabeth Eileen Charash, Queen's University, Belfast