Over half of gun deaths in the United States are suicides, according to media reports Tuesday quoting official data.

Suicides accounted for 55 percent of the nation's nearly 31,000 firearm deaths in 2005, the most recent year for which statistics are available from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Public-health researchers said that in homes where guns are available, the likelihood that someone in the home will die from suicide or homicide is much greater.

"If a resident has a handgun in the home that he can use for self-defense, then he has a handgun in the home that he can use to commit suicide or engage in acts of domestic violence," said Stephen Breyer, a U.S. high court Justice.

More than 90 percent of suicide attempts using guns were successful, while the success rate for jumping from high places was 34 percent. The success rate for drug overdose was 2 percent, statistics said.

(Agencies via Xinhua July 1, 2008)