Handguns
The two 1997 Firearms (Amendment) Acts resulted in the prohibition of the vast majority of handguns in Great Britain. As a result of the prohibition and the surrender exercise, more than 162,000 handguns were handed in to local police forces.
Handgun Surrender and Compensation. Report by the Comptroller and Auditor General NAO, 1999.
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Firearms Certificates
In England and Wales at the end of 2001 there were 119,560 firearm certificates on issue covering 301,000 firearms (nearly three quarters are rifles), and 577,171 shotgun certificates covering 1,307,576 shotguns. With the exception of the number of firearms covered, all these figures are lower than the previous years. One percent and just over one and a half percent, respectively, of applications for new firearm and shotgun certificates made during 2001 were refused.
In Scotland at the end of 2003 there were 26,605 firearm certificates (an increase of 1 percent on 2002) on issue covering the possession of 60,440 firearms (a decrease of 0.3 percent), and 52,421 shotgun certificates (an increase of 1 percent) covering 125,395 shotguns (an increase of 2.3 percent). For both firearm and shotgun certificates new applications were down on 2002.
Firearm Certificates by Alan Gray. Chapter 9 in Crime in England and Wales, 2001/2002: Supplementary Volume. January 2003.
Firearms Certificates Statistics, Scotland, 2003. Scottish Executive Statistical Bulletin. May 2004
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Gun Crime in Great Britain
The official figures for gun crime in England and Wales in 2002/03 were announced in January 2004. There were a total of 24,070 firearm offences of which 57% (13,822) involved air weapons, the highest number of offences ever. The largest increase in offences was seen with imitation firearms for which there was an annual increase of 46% to 1815 offences.
The latest gun crime figures from Scotland show a total of 970 offences in which a firearm was alleged to have been used in 2003, a reduction of over 9% from 2002. A large proportion of the offences (43 percent) involved air weapons, and 37 percent were committed with unidentified weapons (the latter figure has increased significantly in recent years since Strathclyde (after 2001) and Lothian and Borders (after 2002) stopped making assumptions about what type of weapon was used even if it had not been identified - it was usually assumed that this was an air weapon for statistical returns and this is still likely to be the case). Handguns were involved in 29 offences, the lowest number since 1990. No handgun was used in any offence which caused injury or death.
Criminal statistics England and Wales 2002/2003. Supplementary Volume 1. Homicide and Gun Crime (edited by David Povey). National Statistics. January 2004
Recorded Crimes and Offences involving Firearms, Scotland, 2003. Scottish Executive National Statistical Bulletin. October 2004
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Firearms Amnesty
During the month long firearms amnesty in April 2003, over 43,000 guns were surrendered in England and Wales and 3393 in Scotland.
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Firearms Incidents
Behind all the statistics are the actual incidents that result in the suffering of innocent people and animals. These lists reveal the consequence of the continued misuse of firearms.
> Details
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Massacres and Legally-Held Firearms
Worldwide, the majority of recent shooting massacres have been committed with legally-held weapons.
> Details
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Some Statistics from the USA
In 1999, there were 28,874 gun-related deaths in the United States - over 80 deaths every day. (Source: Hoyert DL, Arias E, Smith BL, Murphy SL, Kochanek, KD. Deaths: Final Data for 1999. National Vital Statistics Reports. 2001;49 (8).)
Between 1993-1999, gun deaths in the United States have declined 27%. (SOURCE:
http://www.cdc.gov/ncipc/wisqars/default.htm, WISQARS, National Center for Injury Control and Prevention, accessed March, 2002.)
In 1999, 58% of all gun deaths were suicides, and 38% were homicides. (SOURCE: Hoyert DL, Arias E, Smith BL, Murphy SL, Kochanek, KD. Deaths: Final Data for 1999. National Vital Statistics Reports. 2001;49 (8).)
Of all suicides, 57% occurred by firearm (SOURCE:
http://www.cdc.gov/ncipc/wisqars/default.htm, Web-based Injury Statistics Query and Reporting System (WISQARS), National Center for Injury Control and Prevention, accessed March, 2002.)
In 2000, 75,685 people (27/100,000) suffered non-fatal firearm gunshot injuries. (SOURCE: Federal Bureau of Investigation. Uniform Crime Reports for the United States: Crime in the United States 2000: Uniform Crime Reports. Washington, D.C: U.S. Department of Justice; 2001.)
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Gun Deaths - International Comparisons
Gun Deaths - International Comparisons
Gun deaths per 100,000 population (for the year indicated):
Homicide Suicide Unintentional
USA 4.08 (1999) 6.08 (1999) 0.42 (1999)
Canada 0.54 (1999) 2.65 (1997) 0.15 (1997)
Switzerland 0.50 (1999) 5.78 (1998) -
Scotland 0.12 (1999) 0.27 (1999) -
England/Wales 0.12 (1999/00) 0.22 (1999) 0.01 (1999)
Japan 0.04* (1998) 0.04 (1995) <0.01 (1997)
* Homicide & attempted homicide by handgun
Data collected by Philip Alpers, Harvard Injury Control Research Center, and HELP Network
Additional data can be found in Table A.10 of the World Report on Violence and Health, published by the World Health Organization on 3 October 2002.
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