'Family Annihilators': When Conservative America's Fetish for Guns and Patriarchy Turns Deadly
Trigger warning for violence)
(this is a very difficult, but extremely important, read. The excuses made for the men, the coverups and comments, are beyond disgusting)
‘Family Annihilators’: When Conservative America’s Fetish for Guns and Patriarchy Turns Deadly
7/21/2023 by Jill Filipovic
Every five days, a person murders his family. These killings are not random tragedies—they are political choices.
An attendee holds an M1A series rifle during the National Rifle Association (NRA) Annual Meeting at the George R. Brown Convention Center, in Houston, Texas on May 28, 2022—days after the horrific massacre of children at a Texas elementary school. (Patrick T. Fallon / AFP via Getty Images)
This story originally appeared on Jill.substack.com, a newsletter from journalist, lawyer and author Jill Filipovic.
I’m not sure a more disturbing term exists than “family annihilator.” Every five days, according to an analysis by the Indianapolis Star, a person murders his family.
94 percent of the time, the killer is a man.
86 percent of the time, he uses a gun.
84 percent of the time, his victim is a woman.
And, notably, these killings happen largely in the South and the Midwest: the conservative swaths of the U.S. where guns are broadly accessible, and where gender roles are more traditional. The question of why men kill their families isn’t all that complicated. These men are often deep narcissists who demand subservience and control. But that sense of entitlement is not inborn; it’s cultural, and it comes from a society, and particular communities, that tell men it is their birthright to lead, to be in charge, to provide, and to enjoy the respect of women, children, and broader society.
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Hundreds of people wear orange and march across Brooklyn Bridge in recognition of National Gun Violence Awareness Day on, June 3, 2023. (Selcuk Acar / Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
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This kind of entitlement is supercharged in conservative communities that enforce traditional gender roles, and the sense of humiliation that comes with perceived “emasculation” can be supercharged in return. Communities in which traditional marriage remains a chief aspiration may also see more women tying themselves to less-than-ideal men, and more men believing that marriage imbues them with vast rights over their wife’s agency, her body and her future. And then there are the guns. The very presence of a handgun in the house makes a person seven times more likely to be killed. And men who are insecure about their masculinity, and men with more sexist beliefs, are more likely to be gun proponents and gun owners. No wonder we see these killings so much more often in conservative states, where guns are easy to get and there’s a higher concentration of sexist, insecure men who expect their wives to behave.
The U.S. is a global outlier when it comes to gun deaths. And we are a global outlier when it comes to family annihilations. There are violent, misogynist men everywhere. But their misogyny isn’t enabled and encouraged everywhere, as it is in much of the U.S. And in much of the world, violent, misogynist men cannot easily get their hands on deadly weapons. In the U.S., they can—and the Supreme Court may make that even easier. ****************Men who murder their families are not random bad guys who do the unthinkable. They are the logical outcome of patriarchal social and family norms, coupled with an out-of-control gun culture of paranoia and insecure masculinity. These killings are not random tragedies. They are POLITICAL (caps mine)choices.**************
https://msmagazine.com/2023/07/21/men-guns-south-midwest-misogyny-domestic-violence-against-women/