"Figure 6: Crimes involving firearms show an 14% decrease compared with the previous year","" "England and Wales year ending March 2003 to year ending March 2021","" "","" "Notes","1. More explicit guidelines for the classification of weapons introduced on 1 April 2004 may have increased the recording of firearm offences, particularly those committed by imitation weapons. 2. Firearms data are provisional. Excludes offences involving the use of conventional air weapons, such as air rifles and offences recorded by British Transport Police. Includes crimes recorded by police where a firearm has been fired, used as a blunt instrument against a person or used as a threat. 3. Most police forces have made data quality and recording improvements which means data from earlier years are not directly comparable with recent years. Some forces have also revised data, which means data may not match earlier publications. 4. Imitation firearms include replica weapons, as well as low-powered weapons which fire small plastic pellets, such as BB guns and soft air weapons. 5. Other firearms include CS gas and pepper spray, stun guns and other weapons." "Unit","Number of offences" "","" "","Shotguns","Handguns","Rifles","Imitation firearms","Unidentified firearms","Other firearms" " Mar 03 ","672","5549","52","1814","1431","730" " Mar 04 "," 718 "," 5144 "," 48 "," 2146 "," 1356 "," 926 " " Mar 05 "," 597 "," 4360 "," 54 "," 3373 "," 1500 "," 1185 " " Mar 06 "," 642 "," 4672 "," 71 "," 3277 "," 1362 "," 1064 " " Mar 07 "," 612 "," 4173 "," 69 "," 2516 "," 1276 "," 999 " "Mar 08"," 602 "," 4172 "," 71 "," 2561 "," 1325 "," 1134 " "Mar 09","618","4273","89","1507","953","759" "Mar 10","581","3757","67","1526","1368","783" "Mar 11","611","3107","74","1618","958","672" "Mar 12","494","2655","56","1387","834","596" "Mar 13","453","2256","43","1226","724","456" "Mar 14","387","2134","55","1142","698","440" "Mar 15","431","2061","52","1123","833","411" "Mar 16","411","2157","48","1431","666","469" "Mar 17","592","2685","61","1642","844","551" "Mar 18","657","2868","92","1540","869","508" "Mar 19","687","2764","67","1447","1172","747" "Mar 20","634","2626","73","1506","985","798" "Mar 21","536","2125","56","1438","932","622"