The United States continues to grapple with growing cases of gun violence that killed some 14,600 people so far in 2023, according to a recent tally.
The Gun Violence Archive, which tracks such incidents in the U.S., said that among those killed, 521 were teens and 93 were children.
A total of 199 mass shootings have occurred as of Saturday, with the latest incident killing eight people at a Texas shopping mall.
Suicides, however, continue to make up the vast majority of gun deaths, according to the tracker.
While officer-involved shootings left 487 people dead, 515 others died in unintentional shootings.
According to the latest available statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), more Americans died of gun-related injuries in 2021 than in any other year on record.
In 2021, there were more than 48,000 gun deaths in the U.S., a 23% increase from 2019. This is the highest number of gun deaths in the U.S. since the CDC began tracking gun deaths in 1968.
The majority of gun deaths in the U.S. are suicides. In 2021, there were 26,328 gun suicides, accounting for 54% of all gun deaths. Gun homicides accounted for 43% of gun deaths, and accidental gun deaths accounted for 5%.
The rate of gun deaths in the U.S. is much higher than in other developed countries. In 2020, the U.S. had 12.2 gun deaths per 100,000 people, while the average rate among other developed countries was 0.5 gun deaths per 100,000 people.
There are a number of factors that contribute to the high rate of gun violence in the U.S., including easy access to guns, a culture of violence, and mental health problems.
The easy availability of guns is a major factor in the high rate of gun violence in the U.S. The U.S. has more guns per capita than any other country in the world. In 2018, there were an estimated 120.5 guns per 100 people in the U.S., compared to an average of 12.6 guns per 100 people among other developed countries.
