"Police recorded firearms offences have increased over the last three years","" "England and Wales, year ending March 2003 to year ending December 2017","" "","" "Notes","1. Police recorded crime data are not designated as National Statistics. 2. Firearms include: shotguns; handguns; rifles; imitation weapons such as BB guns or soft air weapons; other weapons such as CS gas, pepper spray and stun guns; and unidentified weapons. They exclude conventional air weapons, such as air rifles. " "Unit","Number of offences" "","" "","Firearm offences","Firearm offences - years ending December " "2003","10248","" "2004","10338","" "2005","11069","" "2006","11088","" "2007","9645","" "2008","9865","" "2009","8199","" "2010","8082","" "2011","7040","" "2012","6022","" "2013","5158","" "2014","4856","" "2015","4911","" "Year end
Dec 2016","","5945" "Year end
Dec 2017","","6604"