Seventy percent of the 24,526 murders in 1993 were committed with firearms, of which four out of five were with a handgun. Recent studies indicate that the use of large caliber semi-automatic handguns in homicides has been increasing. However, the report notes that most guns in the U.S. are not used to commit crimes.
Handguns predominate in firearms crime.
More than three-quarters of the 83,000 guns used in crime that ATF traced for law enforcement agencies in 1994 were handguns. Almost 60 percent of the 2 million stolen gun reports in the FBI's National Crime Information Center files are handguns. More than half of all the handguns manufactured domestically since the turn of the century are 20 years old or less. From 1973 through 1993, more than 40 million handguns were produced in the United States. The predominant type of handgun produced has also changed during the last two decades from manual revolvers to semi-automatic pistols.