“There have been numerous incidents the place mother and father didn’t know that the printers positioned within the rooms of their kids had been really producing weapons. So, this has positioned a brand new dynamic upon the problem of preventing ghost weapons,” Mayor Adams instructed amNew York Metro lifting up a handgun. “That is printed by a 3D printer.”
Picture by Dean Moses
From the second I used to be sworn in as your mayor three years in the past, our main mission has been to create safer streets, safer subways, and a safer metropolis for New York households. Which means tackling the problem of gun violence head-on and dealing to get unlawful weapons out of the fingers of criminals earlier than they’ll trigger extra hurt.
The numbers are in, and I’m proud to say that our administration made vital progress in getting weapons off our streets and out of our communities. As of final week, we’ve confiscated greater than 20,000 unlawful firearms since we first took workplace. That’s 20,000 weapons that not threaten the protection of our neighborhoods, our households, and our youngsters; 20,000 fewer possibilities {that a} New Yorker is shot or killed; and 20,000 rivers of violence dammed up earlier than they flood our metropolis. This statistic is extra than simply a big quantity — it’s a serious milestone for our metropolis and a transparent shift in the fitting path.
We’ve additionally taken 3,000 extra weapons off our streets from 2022 via 2024 than within the earlier three-year interval. And of the 20,000 weapons we’ve seized, greater than 1,400 of them have been recognized as ghost weapons — the untraceable firearms which can be far too simple to acquire and assemble. We’re eradicating harmful weapons off our streets and retaining our communities protected — and our technique is working.
For 3 years in a row, the variety of homicides and shootings have each declined by double digits: homicides are down by virtually 23 %, and shootings are down by greater than 42 %. Which means we’ve saved 268 further lives and seen 1,500 fewer capturing victims.
And final yr noticed the bottom quantity of gun violence within the historical past of Brooklyn, whereas total crime plummeted by 15 % in December throughout all the metropolis. Due to our steadfast deal with eradicating gun violence, New York Metropolis continues to be the most secure large metropolis in America.
As we start the New Yr, our precedence stays the identical: retaining New Yorkers protected by persevering with to handle gun violence and eradicating unlawful firearms from our metropolis. NYPD officers have already confiscated over 350 firearms within the first few weeks of 2025. However we will — and we’ll — go additional.
In the previous couple of months, we’ve seen random acts of violence which have shaken many New Yorkers. Everyone knows security is about extra than simply statistics — individuals should be protected they usually should FEEL protected. Nothing does a greater job in translating notion to actuality than the presence of that acquainted blue uniform. So, we’re placing tons of of further cops out on patrol, together with two officers on each single subway throughout the in a single day hours to maintain New Yorkers protected.
That was my promise to you three years in the past and continues to be my promise to you right this moment. When others wished to defund the police, I defended them, as a result of preventing to your security is what you elected me to do. And the NYPD will hold working laborious — seizing weapons, dismantling trafficking pipelines, and stopping shootings earlier than they occur — to make New York Metropolis even safer.
We’re additionally supporting efforts to cease recidivists from committing extra crimes, constructing stronger bonds between the police and the communities they serve, and creating alternatives for younger individuals to remain protected and discover objective. With initiatives like our Neighborhood Security Groups and the Gun Violence Prevention Job Drive, we’ll proceed to make the sensible, upstream investments that dam the rivers of violence and forestall crime from taking place within the first place.
As I stated in my State of the Metropolis handle earlier this month, we should make New York Metropolis one of the best place on this planet to boost a household — and that begins with safer streets for our households to stroll down, safer transit to experience on, and safer parks to play in. Each gun we take off our streets will get us one other step nearer to that purpose. And day-after-day, I’ll proceed to work to finish gun violence in our metropolis and our nation.
