The Medical Forensic Institute, Collegium Medicum, Nicolaus Copernicus University in Bydgoszcz annually conducts approximately 600 autopsies. Gunshot wounds constitute only a small percentage of that number. The authors of this work have conducted an analysis of autopsy protocols prepared at the Institute in the years 1995-2005. During this period, 48 people were found dead as a result of gunshot wounds. This number constitutes 0.66% of all autopsies conducted within that time-frame. The objective of this study was an attempt at assessing the character of this phenomenon with due consideration given to the following parameters: age, sex, sobriety, circumstances and locality of the event, as well as season of the year, at comparing the results with data found in the literature on the subject.