Study Finds Rise in Gun-Related Crimes : Data: Justice Department figures show an increase of 11% in 1993. Most often, weapon used was handgun.

An estimated 1.3 million Americans were victims of gun-related crimes in 1993, an 11% annual increase, the Justice Department reported Sunday, and while the handgun was the most commonly used weapon among criminals of all ages, assault weapons were often the firearm of choice among juveniles.

The data was part of a survey by the Justice Department’s Bureau of Justice Statistics, which studied the use of guns in crimes during 1993, the most recent year for which information was available.

According to the department, guns were used in 29% of the 4.4 million murders, rapes, robberies and aggravated assaults committed in the United States in 1993, an 11% increase over 1992. Handguns, rather than rifles or assault weapons, were used in 86% of the firearm-related crimes.

The new data is being released as the issue of crime in the United States is about to return to the political debate. The figures also stand in contrast to statistics showing New York City has had a sharp decline recently in violent crimes.

Anti-terrorism measures, fueled by the bombing of the Oklahoma City federal building on April 19, are on the congressional agenda, while the Republican majority in Congress is contemplating cutting funds for President Clinton’s anti-crime bill.

Advocates of strict gun-control laws fear that renewed debate in Congress will give their opponents a chance to relax limits on firearms. The House Appropriations Committee is scheduled Tuesday to consider a measure restoring to former felons the right to carry firearms. Three years ago, Congress passed legislation limiting ex-convicts’ legal access to such weapons.

The Justice Department study “has provided more conclusive evidence demonstrating the need to keep the Brady law and the ban on semiautomatic assault weapons intact,” said Sarah Brady, chairwoman of a lobbying group known as Handgun Control Inc.

Brady said the study “verifies the epidemic of gun violence sweeping across our nation.”

The Brady law imposes a five-day waiting period before handguns can be purchased. It is named after James S. Brady, the former White House press secretary who was wounded by gunfire during an assassination attempt on President Ronald Reagan in 1981.

The proposal to allow convicted felons to own firearms and to eliminate the 1994 federal ban on 19 assault-style weapons--such as semiautomatic pistols or rifles--is opposed by President Clinton and supported by the National Rifle Assn.

The Justice Department also reported that a 1991 survey of young prison inmates in four states showed that just before they were confined, 58% owned a revolver, usually a large-caliber gun, 55% owned a semiautomatic handgun and 51% owned a sawed-off shotgun.

And, it said, a study of adults and juveniles that was conducted by the Virginia Department of Criminal Justice Services determined that young people were more than twice as likely as adults to have carried a semiautomatic pistol at a crime scene.

The Virginia survey also found that 20% of 192 juvenile offenders reported owning an assault rifle, with 1% saying they carried the weapon at the scene of a crime.

The Justice Department study also reviewed the history of gun production in the United States and said that more than half of the handguns manufactured in this country during the 20th Century were made during the past 20 years. From 1973 through 1993, more than 40 million handguns were produced in the United States, the department said.