BOSTON (SHNS) – A firearm was used in 13,414 crimes in Massachusetts over the course of 2022 and 2023, a nearly 14% increase over the preceding two-year period that state officials largely attributed to an increase in violations of state laws dealing with the manufacture, sale, purchase, transport, or possession of guns.
The latest biennial report on firearm-related activity from the Executive Office of Public Safety and Security, put on file with the Legislature last week, counted 6,758 crimes committed with a firearm in 2022 and another 6,656 committed in 2023. The secretariat flagged “a substantial increase of over 1,600 incidents when compared to 2020–2021” and said the spurt was “due in large part to an increase in Weapons Law Violations.”
EOPSS said that category, which counts things like arrests for unlawful possession of a firearm and incidents of shots fired, was the most common type of crime involving a firearm and covered about 51% of all incidents reported during 2022 and 2023 (6,868 incidents total). The report speculates that it is “possible that the increase in Weapons Law Violations was impacted by the end of the Pandemic.”…