Gun use and officer behavior in police-attended incidents of intimate partner violence involving a gun

Background. Like other U.S. homicides, most intimate partner homicides are committed with a gun. Less is known about nonfatal gun use in intimate partner violence (IPV) that rises to the level of needing law enforcement intervention.
Methods. We reviewed police department mandated reports that were filed in response to calls for assistance in response to domestic violence incidents in 2013. Data were coded for: nature of the victim-suspect relationship; occurrence and nature of gun use as well as type of gun used; and whether officers removed the gun used, as required by state law.
Results. Preliminary analyses indicate that 63.5% of the over 50,000 forms filed were for an incident of IPV. A total of 1.6% of the IPV incidents involved the use of a gun. Boy/girlfriend was the most common type of relationship regardless of gun use. When a gun was (vs. was not) used, former girl/boyfriend was more common (RR=1.35) and current girl/boyfriend was less common (RR=0.81). Handguns were part of at least 39.3% of the IPV incidents involving a gun and the most common use was brandishing/threatening (41.1%). When a gun was at the scene, officers reported removing it ~10% of the time.
Conclusions. Gun use in IPV is higher in “911” calls than when police are not called, which is not surprising. Unmarried persons predominate in IPV cases both when a gun was and was not used. It appears that consideration should be given to ways to increase officer compliance with the law mandating on-the-scene removal.