TORONTO
A total of 17,737 people have lost their lives to gun violence across the US this year, according to a tracker.
Data on the Gun Violence Archive (GVA) shows that 268 mass shootings have taken place so far this year, leaving 14,723 people injured besides those killed.
A total of 113 children up to 11 years old and 642 young people aged 12-17 are also among the fatalities.
At least 1,894 minors were wounded in these violent attacks, the figures indicate.
Incidents of gun violence in which police were involved claimed the lives of 587 people, while 361 were wounded.
In 2022, a total of 44,362 people died due to gun violence, while 38,592 were wounded, according to GVA data, which showed that 1,683 of those killed were under 18 years old, as were 4,487 of those injured.
The country is once again discussing ways to address the issue of gun violence on National Gun Violence Awareness Day, observed yearly on the first Friday of June.
US 'number one' in private gun ownership
Anti-gun groups in the country have long called for greater legal hurdles on the personal right to bear arms, as the US stands out as the only nation in the world where civilian-owned firearms outnumber people.
The US ranks first in the world in terms of private gun ownership, with 120.5 guns per 100 people, according to research conducted after last year's Uvalde school shooting in Texas that claimed 21 lives.
Americans are estimated to own 393 million of the 857 million civilian-owned firearms in the world, corresponding to about 46%.
44% of US adults live in homes with guns
In the US, the annual number of mass shootings has been in the hundreds for years, GVA data indicates that four out of every 100,000 people die as a result of gun violence — 18 times the average in other developed countries.
The US accounts for 44% of all suicides by firearms in the world, though it is home to only 4% of the global population, according to the figures.
Also, about 44% of adults live in a home with guns in the US, where about one in three people owns a gun, a survey by Gallup found in 2020.
The US is one of the three countries in the world where carrying or possessing a firearm is a constitutional right.
However, in the other two countries, Mexico and Guatemala, gun ownership is 10 times lower compared to the US.
