Story highlights So far in 2016, 32 law enforcement fatalities have been firearms-related

Traffic-related incidents, such as car and motorcycle crashes, are another cause of officer fatalities

(CNN) The shooting deaths of three officers in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, this month pushed the number of law enforcement fatalities past a tragic benchmark.

That's up 78% from this time last year, when gun-related deaths accounted for 18 of 62 law enforcement fatalities through July 20, 2015. And it means gun-related deaths account for nearly half of the 67 law enforcement fatalities this year.

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The July 17 shooting in Baton Rouge and the July 7 sniper attack on law enforcement officers in Dallas come at a time of heightened tensions between law enforcement and the communities they serve after civilian cameras captured the shooting deaths of Alton Sterling in Baton Rouge and Philando Castile in Minnesota at the hands of police.

Annual rates of shooting deaths of law enforcement officers have fluctuated over the past 10 years.

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