File Photo: People take part in the "March for Our Lives" rally in Chicago, the United States, on March 24, 2018. Tens of thousands of people gathered at Union Park in Chicago for the "March for Our Lives" gun control rally, demanding the end of gun violence and mass school shootings. (Xinhua/Wang Ping)

WASHINGTON, Aug. 29 (Xinhua) -- The United States has one of the highest gun-related death tolls in the world due to lax gun control, a study showed.

Released Tuesday by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, the study found that the United States had 37,200 firearm-related deaths in 2016, second only to Brazil, and the only developed country in the top 10 list.

The United States also ranked second in the number of suicides by gun, after the territory of Greenland, the study found.

Overall, North and South American countries were more prone to gun violence, with Brazil, the United States, Mexico, Colombia, Venezuela and Guatemala making up half of the world's gun-related deaths in 2016.

Mohsen Naghavi, first author of the study, said it "confirms what many have been claiming for years -- that gun violence is one of the greatest public health crises of our time."

The study also listed countries with the lowest mortality rate by gun violence, most of which are located in Asia. Topping the chart are Singapore, China, Oman and Japan.