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Home » Consumer Information » Crime

Weapons Offenses

Weapons Offenses are defined as "violations of statutes or regulations that control deadly weapons". The United States Department of Justice collects and records statistics about these offenses. They work in cooperation with the FBI, the National Center for Juvenile Justice Juvenile Court Statistics, the BJS Survey of Inmates of State Correctional Facilities and other groups to create a thorough report to better understand weapons related issues.

Weapons Restrictions

Deadly weapons have several federally mandated restrictions, including:

  • Possession of handguns, especially for those under 18.
  • Carrying a handgun in any public place.
  • Use of a weapon for purposes other than hunting or firearms training.
  • Sales or trafficking or handguns or other weapons.
  • Manufacturing weapons.
  • Importing and exporting the weapons.

Offenses and Offenders

The report includes specific information about people who are found guilty of Weapons Offenses. One thing that they discovered is the majority of people who are arrested for these offenses are males over the age of 18, but the rate of juvenile arrests is growing at a remarkable pace. In 1994 an act known as the Youth Handgun Safety Act was put in place. This act made it illegal for anyone under the age of 18 to carry a handgun. There were exceptions made for hunting, gun safety training and those who need to possess handguns for employment related reasons.

Some Statistics

A few pieces of information about those who were convicted of Weapons Offenses were highlighted within the report.

  • Out of all the individuals who had a previous record involving jail time, 36% of the people convicted had spent time in jail within the last 13 months.
  • Over a ten year period of time the percentage of Federal Cases in which a person received prison time following a weapon offense grew by more then 150%.
  • The majority of the convictions involved violent behavior.
  • 70% of the people who were up on weapons related charges had been previously sentenced for earlier offenses.

The number of Weapons Offenses continues to rise every year. Even though policies have been put into place to discourage the use of weapons by those who are under 18, the use of guns by male minors experiences a rapid annual growth rate.