Crime: Firearms

David Davis
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many crimes were recorded by the police in which deactivated or reactivated firearms were used in the last five years.

Jacqui Smith
Information on deactivated or reactivated firearms has been centrally separately collected since 2004-05. Available data from 2004-05 up to and including 2006-07 are given in the following table.

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|Number of offences                                                                                                                                                                              |
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|Weapon type                                                                                                                                                                                     |2004-051|2005-06|2006-07|
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|Reactivated handgun                                                                                                                                                                             |2|2|2|
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|Deactivated imitation firearm                                                                                                                                                                   |1|4|2|
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|Other reactivated firearm                                                                                                                                                                       |—|2|1|
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|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.|
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