ABSTRACT
Although compared to the general male population, the men in our sample appear to be quite homogeneous in their socioeconomic backgrounds, they did vary considerably among themselves in the kinds and amounts of their criminal activities and, most importantly for purposes of this volume, in their patterns of weapons use. For instance, so far as we can tell, many of the men in the sample had never committed any kind of crime armed with any kind of weapon. These, in fact, constitute the modal type. Some had used weapons from time to time but never on a sustained or regular basis. And, by their own admission, some, of course, had done literally hundreds, or even thousands, of armed crimes. Even among those who have used weapons regularly, there are differences in the kind of weapons carried and the uses to which they are customarily put.
