About 582,000 of these reported murders, robberies, and aggravated assaults were committed with firearms. No national collection of data contains detailed information about all of the guns used in crimes. From these sources, we know how often guns are involved in crime, how guns are used in crime, what general categories of firearms are most often used in crime, and, to a limited extent, the specific types of guns most frequently used by criminals. Although most crime is not committed with guns, most gun crime is committed with handguns. By definition, stolen guns are available to criminals.
Juvenile offenders appear to be more likely to possess guns than adults.
The information that does exist uses varying definitions of assault weapons that were developed before the Federal assault weapons ban was enacted. Revolver A handgun that contains its ammunition in a revolving cylinder that typically holds five to nine cartridges each within a separate chamber. Before a revolver fires, the cylinder rotates and the next chamber is aligned with the barrel. Pistol Any handgun that does not contain its ammunition in a revolving cylinder. Pistols can be manually operated or semiautomatic.