Alabama has the third-highest rate of gun violence in the country, according to

a left-leaning think tank.

Only Louisiana and Alaska had higher rates of gun violence, according to the report.

The report found that Alabama and other states with relatively loose gun laws had more gun violence than states with tighter rules.

"While the strength of a state’s gun laws is just one factor in the prevalence of gun-related violence in the state and cannot alone account for gun violence, there is a clear link between weak gun laws and high levels of gun violence across the United States," according to the report.

The report breaks "gun violence" into 10 gun-related statistical measures:

Overall firearm deaths in 2010

Overall firearm deaths from 2001 through 2010

Firearm homicides in 2010

Firearm suicides in 2010

Firearm homicides among women from 2001 through 2010

Firearm deaths among children ages 0 to 17, from 2001 through 2010

Law-enforcement agents feloniously killed with a firearm from 2002 through 2011

Aggravated assaults with a firearm in 2011

Crime-gun export rates in 2009

Percentage of crime guns with a short “time to crime” in 2009

Using those measures, the analysts ranked each state according their rate of overall gun violence.