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Colbert County Courthouse in Tuscumbia, Ala. (file)

Alabamians are more likely to die in a shooting accident than be swept up in a tornado.

And that's especially true in North Alabama, home to the highest rates in the nation for deadly mishaps with firearms.

Colbert County in the Shoals saw the highest rate of fatal, accidental shootings among all U.S. counties, according to mortality data for 1999 to 2014 compiled by the Centers for Disease Control.

In Colbert, residents were twice as likely to die from a gun accident as from a building fire.

Colbert is not alone. Five of the top 10 counties for deadly gun accidents are scattered across North Alabama, as DeKalb and Marshall counties trail directly behind Colbert.

Calhoun County, home to Anniston, had the fifth highest rate of deadly shooting accidents over the 15-year span. Madison County, home to Huntsville, is seventh in the nation.

Madison County, the most populous of the five counties, recorded 52 deaths from accidental shootings from 1999 to 2014. That gives the Huntsville area a rate of approximately one death per 100,000 residents each year from a mishap with a handgun, rifle or other firearm.

In Huntsville, residents were three times more likely to be shot and killed by mistake than to die from drowning.

For comparison, Jefferson County, the state's most crowded county and by far the area with the most gun homicides, saw just 34 accidental shootings over that same stretch and a rate of .3 per 100,000.

Alabama as a whole is third in the nation, behind Louisiana and then Mississippi, for the rate of deadly accidents with guns.

The same three states, in the exact same order, also lead the nation in death rates from gun homicides.

In Alabama, 72 percent of those who died in shooting accidents were white.

Nationally, guns are most likely to be used in suicide. And the national map is far different on that cause of death, as Alaska leads in death rate from suicide with a firearm.

Here's how the states stack up: