Gun violence statistics can be collected in the United States to indicate the rate both of murders in which gun violence is committed against other persons as well as accidents and suicides which also occur through the use and due to the ownership of a gun, typically in the home of the victim. In regard to the latter issue, it has been remarked upon that gun violence statistics indicate guns accounting for slightly more than half of the suicides which occur in the United States.
Gun violence statistics are commonly cited in political debates in the United States over the passage of legislation and regulation related to the restriction of gun ownership and use. The debate over gun violence has thus turned on the extent to which the imposition of legal measures on firearms can affect the rate of homicides being committed.
Notable single instances of gun violence, apart from the data shown through gun violence statistics, include the political assassinations of the 1960s as well as some of the high-profile shooting incidents which occurred in the 1990s and 2000s, including the Columbine High School shootings, the Virginia Tech shootings, and the Beltway sniper attacks.
In regard to the more recent shooting incidents in the United States which have been cited over the issue of the legal confiscation of firearms, data collected by the governmental agency of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention indicated that, in 2000, gun violence indicated in 52,447 deliberately caused injuries and 23,237 accidental injuries.
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