The United States has by far the highest rate of firearms death compared to any other industrialized nation. (Harvard Injury Control Research Center, Harvard School of Public Health. "Racial Disparities and Firearm Deaths Among Youth.")
 
The rate of firearm homicide in the United States is 19 times higher than that of 35 other high-income countries. (Krug EG, Powell KE, Dahlberg LL. Firearm-related deaths in the United States and 35 other high- and upper-middle-income countries. International Journal of Epidemiology. 1998; 27: 214-21.)
 
Firearm injuries are the second leading cause of injury death in the U.S., and have killed more than 28,000 Americans each year since 1972. (CDC, National Center for Health Statistics, 2004.)
 
In 2004, 29,569 people were killed by guns in America- 81 people a day- including 16,750 suicides; 11,624 homicides; and 649 unintentional or accidental shootings. (WISQARS, Injury Mortality Reports. National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, Centers for Disease Control. Available at: http://webappa.cdc.gov/sasweb/ncipc/mortrate10_sy.html.)
 
About 3% of firearm fatalities in 2001 were unintentional, claiming the lives of 802 people and disproportionately affecting males. (Frattarloi S, Webster DW, Teret S. Unintentional Gun Injuries, Firearm Design, and Prevention: What We Know, What We Need to Know, and What Can Be Done. Journal of Urban Health. 2002; 79:49-59.)
 
California’s gun homicide rate remains high: 1730 gun homicides in 2004 (4.8 per 100,000 populations). (Crime in California 2004, CA Dept. of Justice).
 
About two-thirds of all homicides in the state are committed with handguns. (Homicide in California 2003, CA Dept. of Justice.)
 
Source: Women against gun Violence  http://www.wagv.org/gun-violence.php