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(CNN) --
Gun deaths have surpassed car accidents and are the leading cause of trauma death in the United States, according to a new study.
In 2017, 1.44 million years of potential life were lost due to gun deaths, surpassing car accidents (1.37 million years), according to the study published Tuesday in the journal Trauma Surgery and Acute Care. Open.
And that trend continued in 2018.
Those figures are based on data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) between 2009 and 2018, the most recent year for which data was available.
The researchers used the CDC standard formula to calculate the years of potential life lost by subtracting the age at death from the standard age of 80 years, to represent the average life expectancy in the United States of 78.7 years, and then added the differences.
"The main argument that the right to bear arms to prevent injury or to defend oneself from assailants may result in a small number of preventable deaths is a plausible theory; however, the data reveals that the resulting access to firearms is has equated to magnitudes of death from firearm suicides in the very people who demanded access to firearms," the researchers wrote.
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Gun deaths cost millions of years of potential life
The study found that suicides accounted for the majority of gun deaths, and those deaths had been on the rise.
The number of gun suicides rose from fewer than 19,000 in 2009 to more than 24,000 in 2018. Over the 10 years studied, white men made up the majority of firearm-related deaths. suicide, with 4.95 million years of potential life lost.
Meanwhile, the majority of homicide-related firearm deaths were among black men, with 3.2 million years of potential life lost, the study found.
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People who die in homicide tend to be younger, meaning that for every death, on average, a black man who is a victim of homicide loses 50.5 years, while a white man who dies by suicide loses 29.1 years.
Overall, blacks make up 13.4% of the US population.
And among women, firearm homicides increased nearly 10% over the 10 years, and firearm suicides increased more than 31%.
"Previous studies have shown that gun ownership, mass shootings, injuries and deaths are a greater problem in the US compared to other developed countries," the researchers wrote.
"The demand for total freedom and the second amendment have resulted in high access to firearms in this country and that is indisputable."
A study, published in January by the nonprofit organization Everytown for Gun Safety, indicates there is a direct correlation between weaker gun laws and higher rates of gun deaths, including homicides, suicides and accidental deaths.
The group found that California had the strictest gun laws, scoring 84.5 out of 100, with a low rate of 8.5 gun deaths per 100,000 population and below the national average of 13.6. .
And Hawaii has the lowest rate of gun deaths in the country, with the second-highest gun law score.
It also has the lowest rate of gun ownership, with firearms in 9% of households, the data shows.
At the other end of the spectrum is Mississippi, which has the weakest gun laws with a score of 3 out of 100 and has a rate of 28.6 gun deaths per 100,000 population, the highest of any state. , nonprofit research shows.
Regionally, researchers in the study, published by Trauma Surgery and Acute Care Open, found that the South had the highest number of years of potential life lost due to firearms, followed by the Midwest, West and the northeast.
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