The US is often known globally for its shocking levels of violence, but acts of “family annihilation” or “familicide” rank among the most disturbing of crimes. They occur when an assailant kills four or more of their own family members and often see the killer also kill themselves. These types of crime have increased dramatically this year, according to data from Northeastern University.
The still rare but shocking mass killings have occurred across the country, including one this week in Texas, in which an alleged shooter killed four adults in a family that had taken him in, and one last month in Montana, in which an assailant killed eight relatives, including four children. After six such attacks occurred last year, the lowest number in at least two decades, there have already been at least 17 this year. Experts say they often occur after family estrangement or due to financial stresses, often on a father, or marital disputes.
But, crucially, in the United States, the perpetrator is more likely to have easy access to a gun than many other parts of the world. Such familicide is preventable, experts argue, but happens, in large part, because of the country’s high gun ownership rate and lack of firearm regulations, which makes it more likely that an assailant will impulsively shoot their family. In June, a domestic dispute occurred in Muscatine, Iowa.
Ryan McFarland had previously been charged with child endangerment resulting in a death; neglect or abandonment; armed robbery and burglary; and fraud, according to WQAD-TV. After the dispute, McFarland shot and killed his wife and five family members before killing himself. In another case this summer, in Billings, Montana, Alan Smith’s parents had asked him to move out.
Weeks later, he killed four generations of his family at a Sunday dinner. The father of two of the children killed told the that Smith had been verbally abusive and a hermit. But while the rate of intimate partner violence is similar across all high-income countries, according to a study published in the Lancet, gun ownership and deaths are much more common in the United States than other developed nations.
When a domestic abuser, who is typically a man, has access to a gun, the victim is five times likelier to be killed, according to a study in the American Journal of Public Health. In the United States, there were 2.6 intentional homicides of women per 1,000 females in 2023, according to the World Bank Group. In the United Kingdom, for example, which has stricter gun laws and lower gun ownership, the number in 2021 was 0.7.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
