Weapon law violations in the United States

America's crime record

339,611

offenses recorded, 2025 · Down 6.8% from 2024

Rate 112.9, about 1 in 890 residents

Timeline

👤︎ U.S. residents, Census Bureau.

Weapon law violations police recorded in NIBRS, such as carrying or possessing a weapon unlawfully.

Source and method

Most are found by police, so the count follows enforcement.

FBI NIBRS incident records · Calendar year · 2009 to 2025

20212021 is the first year the FBI took only NIBRS reports. Before it, the count is only the agencies that sent NIBRS (26% of people in 2009, 64% in 2020), so it grows as agencies join and is no national total; compare years by the rate. Agencies that sent NIBRS before 2019 mostly police smaller places, and in 2021 their rates ran 8% to 22% above all agencies', so earlier rates read somewhat high.
2022–2025The NIBRS state incident files and the NIBRS national master file hold the same records side by side. CrimeDB uses the NIBRS national master file; the other is kept as a check. The zips are the frozen snapshot the FBI's NIBRS tables were built from, 1% to 5% fewer incidents than the rebuilt master file (2025 equal). They check those tables.
2023Wisconsin, West Virginia, and Wyoming come from the NIBRS state incident files, filling a gap in the NIBRS national master file. The 2023 master file stops partway through Wisconsin and has no West Virginia or Wyoming rows, and the FBI has not reissued it (checked 2026-10-08). The normalized NIBRS records take those states' incidents from the zips.

Breakdown

Known offenders by age, 2021+

Known offenders by age, 2021+
Group	Share	Count	Rate
Under 12	1%9,745	9,745	5
12 to 17	10%197,260	197,260	183
18 to 24	25%467,843	467,843	352
25 to 34	28%522,173	522,173	274
35 to 49	23%427,178	427,178	160
50 to 64	7%135,625	135,625	52
65 and older	1%23,913	23,913	9.4
Age unknown	6%104,753	104,753	–

Known offenders in agencies that sent incident detail to the FBI from 2021 through 2025, every year added, covering 77% to 88% of the population a year. Not the count in the chart above.

6% of known offenders have no recorded age, so each group's rate is a floor.

FBI NIBRS incident records, 2021 to 2025

Every figure as a table

Weapon law violations, offenses recorded, by year

Year	Count	Rate
2025	339,611	113
2024	364,324	124
2023	372,426	132
2022	345,235	130
2021	303,670	125
2020	199,466	109
2019	142,646	94
2018	114,685	99
2017	107,554	100
2016	98,619	98
2015	86,144	91
2014	77,489	84
2013	76,205	84
2012	73,412	82
2011	68,318	80
2010	66,793	81
2009	66,686	83

Rate: Offenses per 100,000 people living where the agencies that sent all 12 months of NIBRS police, by the FBI's population for those agencies. An agency that sent part of the year would add all its people but only part of its offenses.

FBI NIBRS incident records · Calendar year

Weapon law violations: known offenders per 100,000 people in each group, by race, by year

Year	White+MENA	Black	Hispanic	Asian	AIAN	NHPI	All known offenders	Share with race not recorded
2025	60	471	126	21	185	141	126	5%
2024	63	513	133	22	187	146	136	6%
2023	65	545	132	24	181	153	142	6%
2022	65	541	115	19	186	152	137	6%
2021	67	512	91	16	185	116	129	6%

The Rate view's race lines, from 2021. Each group's line is its people counted per 100,000 people in the group, in the agencies that sent incident detail to the FBI: the Census count of the group scaled by the share of people those agencies police. Hispanic is of any race; the other groups are not Hispanic. The dashed line is everyone in the role, any race or none.

– means no rate: a group the source does not count apart that year, or no people to divide by. People whose race is not known are in no group's rate, so each rate is a floor.

FBI NIBRS incident records; CrimeDB's split of records with a race and no ethnicity (crimedb-ethnicity-v3); Census Bureau population estimates

Known offenders by age, 2021+

Age	Count	Share	Rate
Under 12	9,745	1%	5
12 to 17	197,260	10%	183
18 to 24	467,843	25%	352
25 to 34	522,173	28%	274
35 to 49	427,178	23%	160
50 to 64	135,625	7%	52
65 and older	23,913	1%	9.4
Age unknown	104,753	6%	–

Known offenders in agencies that sent incident detail to the FBI from 2021 through 2025, every year added, covering 77% to 88% of the population a year. Not the count in the chart above. Rate: known offenders per 100,000 people in the group; – means no rate for that group.

6% have no recorded age, so each group's rate is a floor.

FBI NIBRS incident records, 2021 to 2025

Known offenders by sex, 2021+

Sex	Count	Share	Rate
Male	1,573,445	83%	228
Female	246,199	13%	34
Sex unknown	68,846	4%	–

FBI NIBRS incident records, 2021 to 2025

Known offenders by race, 2021+

Race	Count	Of which placed by CrimeDB	Share	Rate
Black	891,377	257,807	47%	516
White+MENA	515,010	164,304	27%	64
Hispanic	336,707	71,714	18%	121
Asian	18,719	4,494	1%	21
AIAN	17,978	7,522	1%	185
NHPI	4,028	849	<1%	142
Race unknown	104,671	0	6%	–

Hispanic is of any race; the other groups are not Hispanic. White+MENA includes Middle Eastern and North African people.

6% have no recorded race, so each group's rate is a floor.

FBI NIBRS incident records; CrimeDB's split of records with a race and no ethnicity (crimedb-ethnicity-v3); Census Bureau population estimates, 2021 to 2025

Offenses by place, 2021+

Place	Count	Share
Highway/Road/Alley/Street/Sidewalk	827,358	48%
Residence/Home	407,069	24%
Parking/Drop Lot/Garage	116,317	7%
School-Elementary/Secondary	48,836	3%
Air/Bus/Train Terminal	27,702	2%
Hotel/Motel/Etc.	22,340	1%
Convenience Store	20,849	1%
All other places	188,973	11%
Other/Unknown	59,882	4%

Offenses in agencies that sent incident detail to the FBI from 2021 through 2025, every year added, covering 77% to 88% of the population a year. Not the count in the chart above.

FBI NIBRS incident records, 2021 to 2025

Incidents by hour of day, 2021+

Hour of day	Count	Share
Midnight	175,297	10%
1 a.m.	90,300	5%
2 a.m.	75,772	4%
3 a.m.	50,259	3%
4 a.m.	33,677	2%
5 a.m.	24,495	1%
6 a.m.	24,596	1%
7 a.m.	30,670	2%
8 a.m.	42,703	3%
9 a.m.	48,413	3%
10 a.m.	54,726	3%
11 a.m.	58,383	3%
Noon	63,961	4%
1 p.m.	64,565	4%
2 p.m.	69,877	4%
3 p.m.	74,825	4%
4 p.m.	77,143	5%
5 p.m.	77,346	5%
6 p.m.	80,550	5%
7 p.m.	88,038	5%
8 p.m.	95,899	6%
9 p.m.	103,930	6%
10 p.m.	108,299	6%
11 p.m.	105,516	6%

Incidents in agencies that sent incident detail to the FBI from 2021 through 2025, every year added, covering 77% to 88% of the population a year. Not the count in the chart above. 86 incidents with no hour recorded have no bar but count in every share. Many agencies record an unknown time as midnight, so that hour runs high.

FBI NIBRS incident records, 2021 to 2025

How we count

Age: Age at the offense, in the same bands on every page.
Sex: Biological sex: female or male.
Race and ethnicity: Six groups, the same on every page. Hispanic is of any race; the other five are not Hispanic, so no one is in two.
Relationship: The victim's relationship to the offender, as police recorded it.
Counting once: Each person counts once in each row they fit, so rows can add up to more than the total.
Unknowns: Unknown is always its own row, and every share reads against everyone.
Small counts: Every count is shown, however small.
Marks on figures: When a figure is missing, the page says why.
Rates: Pages call it the rate: how many for every 100,000 people, or every million for rare events. It always sits beside its count, never in place of it.
Who reports: Police figures count only the agencies that sent records to the FBI.

Every rule in full