THE rate for murder by firearms in the United States went up by nearly 35% between 2019 to 2020. 

This coincided with the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Would ending the availability of domestic guns have prevented some of these deaths? 

This week the news of the deaths of a couple and their seven-year-old daughter in Epsom hit the news. 

Carbon monoxide poisoning was my first thought. My first hope perhaps is more accurate. 

Yet the BBC are now reporting a distress call made by Mrs Emma Pattison to a relative and confirming that the police believe she was shot dead by her husband George before he killed their daughter Lettie and took his own life with the same gun.

We can never know if not having a gun would have prevented these deaths. 

We can know though, that where guns are available, deaths from guns are consistently higher than where they are not.

As Emma Pattison becomes the latest statistic of a woman killed by a man in the UK, the desperate sadness of a situation where lethal force was enabled by laws that permit gun use as a hobby must surely lead to change. 

Why is anybody allowed a gun for fun? Farmers need guns. 

Why do accountants?

UK government figures confirm that for those murder victims where a suspect has been charged, 92% of victims had suspects who were male.

This is why women are afraid of male power, male aggression. 

It’s why when I was being driven home by a cab driver one night in London 25 years ago and he started talking about his love of porn, I felt a lurching sick feeling and hot/cold panic about whether he’d locked the doors. 

He hadn’t. 

It’s why when a drunk businessmen in a Premier Inn sat down and put his hand on my knee I complained to the hotel and was then unable to sleep for fear of being followed.

These are everyday nuisances and I doubt there are any women who haven’t experienced some level of heightened awareness of being followed, targeted, stalked, threatened.

Domestic violence, behind closed doors, is also present in too many lives. 

What can society do? 

We can make practical changes such as ending access to guns for ‘fun’. 

But what can we do about other more prevalent forms of physical and emotional violence?  

We need to understand what creates violence and importantly what keeps people in abusive and dangerous relationships.

Mental healthcare, psychotherapy, counselling, talking therapy – these public services have been cut to shreds by this Conservative government. 

Life-saving interventions have been axed. 

Good mental health is not a ‘nice to have’ it should be a priority. 

And in my book, it’s a lot higher up the list of essential services than nuclear warheads!

Division of Violence Prevention, National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, CDC; 2Division of Injury Prevention, National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, CDC; 3Office of the Director, National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, CDC