Gun violence in the United States has taken the lives of more than 42,300 people in 2023, a report has said, emphasizing that Americans used guns mostly to commit suicide, followed by homicide, self-defense and unintentional shootings.
The figures published by the nonprofit organization Gun Violence Archive (GVA) on Tuesday.
It also said there have been 18,541 cases of other gun-related deaths, of which, more than 650 incidents were related to mass shootings, while others involved 40 mass murders, 1,161 defensive use cases and 1,543 unintentional shootings. 23,760 suicide cases were also registered in the US.
It said more than 1,600 children between the ages of 0-17 were killed in gun violence incidents and 4,444 others were injured.
Furthermore, forty-six law enforcement officers were killed in gun violence incidents and 1,412 suspects were killed in officer-involved cases, the report noted.
The watchdog tracks gun violence incidents using law enforcement, media, governmental, and commercial sources.
In the meantime, the frequency of gun violence in the United States has prompted authorities to refer to it as an epidemic.
There have been more than 600 mass shootings, averaging almost two a day, in the United States since 2019.
Democratic US President Joe Biden has called on Congress to address the issue, urging lawmakers to ban assault weapons.
However, Republicans are staunch promoters of US gun culture and adamantly adhere to the Second Amendment of the US Constitution (right to bear arms), opposing strict bans on guns
In this regard, a Gallup poll from October 2022 showed that the majority of Americans are in favor of gun control, saying they want stricter laws for the sale of firearms.
There are an estimated 393 million civilian-owned firearms in the US. Approximately, one-third of the adult population in the United States, which equates to 82,880,000 people, own at least one firearm.
