New Research Launched: The Role of Firearms in Violence Against Women and Girls in Northern Ireland
On 9 December 2025, at the Shankill Shared Women’s Centre, the Women’s Resource and Development Agency (WRDA) unveiled our new research, The Role of Firearms in Violence Against Women and Girls in Northern Ireland. The event, part of the “16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence” campaign, centred on giving voice to lived experience and advancing recommendations to deal with an issue described as “rare but extremely dangerous”.
A survivor-initiated study based on women’s lived experience
The WRDA based Women’s Sector Lobbyist, Elaine Crory, discussed how the research began with a call from a survivor, a moment that highlighted the hidden role firearms play in domestic abuse. That call prompted the Lobbyist to embark on a comprehensive study aimed at understanding how perpetrator access to firearms can intensify violence against women and girls (VAWG). The study is grounded in women’s lived experience through anonymous accounts collected by survey. Quotes have been published verbatim, with anonymity preserved, ensuring findings reflect genuine lived experience. The research exposes how gun ownership can escalate abuse: even if not fired, the presence or threat of firearms creates a constant sense of fear in victims. Perpetrators range from intimate partners to fathers, fathers in-laws, and colleagues, highlighting that the dynamics of firearm-related VAWG extend beyond the home.
The event featured a panel discussion with Karen Devlin from Women’s Aid NI, Danielle Roberts from Reclaim the Agenda, and Meghan Hoyt from WRDA. Karen Devlin stressed that while firearm involvement in VAWG cases may seem infrequent, the outcomes are severe. She noted that three adult women on the island of Ireland have been murdered with legally held guns since 2020. Danielle discussed the experience of women in their 30s and reflects that firearms related VAWG isn't a problem of the past. Danielle made the point that we are a post-ceasefire society but not post-conflict. This was supported by the comments of Meghan who emphasised the particularity of VAWG in NI due to the legacy of the conflict and how this research brings this together.
Recommendations:
The vetting process must immediately be improved, at a minimum to match recent progress in Britain and further enhanced in the following ways:
1. Increased referee requirement: applicants for new or renewed firearms certificates should be required to provide two referees, at a minimum.
2. Enhanced disclosure: applicants must declare all previous convictions and offences, with the sole exception of parking violations. In addition, because conviction rates are low for some VAWG offences, applicants should be cross referenced with the DVADS scheme to see if there have been reports of domestic abuse with any current or past partner.
3. New application forms and medical proformas: these should encourage GPs to examine the health of the applicant but also of any household members in case red flags for abuse in the home are raised.
4. Higher licensing fees: new "full cost recovery" fees for firearms and shotgun certificates were introduced, significantly increasing costs for licenses and renewals.
5. Introduce new statutory guidance requiring police to conduct more indepth, consistent checks, including especially a requirement that police must interview partners or household members of an applicant privately to identify signs of domestic abuse or other unsuitability factors.
6. An ongoing monitoring must be put in place, and unannounced home visits may be carried out if concerns arise about a certificate holder's suitability.
7. The requirement of license holders to notify police if they change address should be extended to a requirement to notify police if somebody moves into their home, including if a child is born.
8. With regards to illegally held weapons, efforts are ongoing to tackle paramilitarism and this should be enhanced, in particular to stem recruitment and to attempt to seize weapons.
9. Where there is knowledge or suspicion that illegal weapons markets operate, every effort should be made to tackle this, including with adjusted police priorities and resourcing.
10. Police should repeat their approach to seizing weapons from those with licenses who would no longer qualify for a new application or a renewal of that license on an annual basis, and encourage and enable the surrender of weapons on an ongoing basis.
11. Investment in specialist counselling and support for survivors, through refuge provision and beyond.
12. Consideration of the role that firearms may have in custody arrangements when cases are considered in family courts. These align with a wider EVAWG strategic framework in Northern Ireland, placing firearms control within a comprehensive violence prevention approach.
The Women’s Sector Lobbyist pledged to meet with government ministers and MLAs “anytime and anywhere” to drive forward the changes women need to achieve liberation from firearms related VAWG. In her closing remarks, the Lobbyist thanked the survivor whose testimony initiated the study and urged the implementation of the recommendations. Without decisive action, particularly around vetting, monitoring, and regulation, women will continue to be terrorised by perpetrators with access to firearms.