"Figure 6: Trends in police recorded crime in England and Wales involving the use of firearms, year ending March 2003 to year ending December 2016","" "","" "","" "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 or pepper spray; and stun guns; and unidentified weapons. They exclude conventional air weapons, such as air rifles." "Unit","Number of offences" "","" "","Firearm offences year ending Mar","Firearm offences year ending Dec" "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",""," 5176 " "2016",""," 5864 "