Mayor Adams and Commissioner Tisch Announce Removal of Over 25,000 Illegal Firearms From City Streets Since Beginning of Adams Administration as Record Low Shootings Continue Through 12th Straight Month, Honors Community Violence Interrupters With Keys to the City of New York

NEW YORK – New York City Mayor Eric Adams and New York City Police Department (NYPD) Commissioner Jessica S. Tisch today announced that the NYPD has removed more than 25,000 illegal firearms from New York City streets since the start of the Adams administration in January 2022, with this year alone, the NYPD already seizing more than 5,200 illegal guns. This success has helped drive shootings down by 55 percent and homicides by 35.5 percent since the beginning of the Adams administration.

The decrease in these violent crimes can also be attributed to the upstream efforts of violence interrupters, who have worked to stop gun violence before it first takes place. As a result, Mayor Adams, today, awarded the Key to the City of New York to 29 organizations that participate in the Crisis Management System (CMS) program run by the Office to Prevent Gun Violence within the New York City Department of Youth and Community Development. CMS is a partnership of organizations including a network of residents, credible messengers, and community leaders-that mediate community conflicts, connect young people aged 16 to 24 most at risk of gun violence to mentorship and risk reduction plans, and mobilize the community to promote peace and shift norms around the use of violence. It is comprised of a street outreach and violence intervention model, with wrap-around services that improve quality of life, address trauma, and promote peace among those most affected by violence, while also ensuring historically disenfranchised New Yorkers have access to opportunities needed to thrive. Twenty-nine total providers were honored for their work to keep communities safe with one Key to the City of New York for each borough.

“Our administration has been laser focused on public safety, and that focus has led to years of meaningful, visible improvements, including a whopping 55 percent decrease in shootings since we came into office,” said Mayor Adams. “The numbers don’t lie, which is why we are proud to announce yet another milestone of 25,000 guns removed from our streets since we took office. In a world where just one gun can tear an entire community apart, removing 25,000 of them has saved untold number of lives and kept families whole. This builds on our incredible record of public safety, including driving a 55 percent decrease in shootings and 35.5 percent reduction in homicides citywide since the beginning of this administration. The first 11 months of 2025 had the lowest number of shooting incidents and shooting victims ever recorded in an 11-month span. We know we cannot do this work alone, which is why we are proud to give the Key to the City to the 29 nonprofit providers in the New York City Department of Youth and Community Development’s Crises Management System program, who interrupt violence and keep communities safe every day. I hope their work will continue to grow and thrive so New Yorkers can continue to experience the safety and peace of mind they deserve.”

“Removing illegal guns from our streets is one of the most important ways we protect lives, and the NYPD has stayed relentlessly focused on that mission,” said NYPD Commissioner Tisch. “Since the start of the Adams administration, our officers have seized more than 25,000 illegal firearms — over 5,000 of them this year alone. That work has helped drive shooting incidents and shooting victims to their lowest levels ever, by far, in 2025. These results are not accidental; they reflect precision policing, smart deployment, and the commitment of officers who put themselves in harm’s way to keep communities safe. I’m grateful to Mayor Adams for making public safety a top priority, and to every member of the NYPD whose work continues to make New York City safer.”

“Gun violence is a serious issue, and we must deal with it seriously. The complex challenges of gun violence are multi-faceted and go way beyond the gun,” said Mayor’s Office of Faith-Based and Community Partnerships Executive Director Pastor Gilford T. Monrose. “The clergy partnership that Mayor Adams initiated and funded within the faith community changed the way we dealt with the root causes of the violence in this city. Removing over 25,000 guns and ending the year with the lowest number of individuals shot proved that coordination with strong clergy leadership, and a shared responsibility for public safety, resulted in a continued decline in gun violence to historic lows.”

Honoring Violence Interrupters

Mayor Adams awarded five keys, one per borough, to 29 organizations that participate in the CMS program:

Brooklyn

• Brownsville In, Violence Out, CAMBA, Inc.
• Brownsville Think Tank Matters, Inc.
• East Flatbush Village, Inc.
• Elite Leaders, Inc.
• The God Squad, 67th Precinct Clergy Council, Inc.
• Jewish Community Council of Greater Coney Island, Inc.
• Kings Against Violence Initiative, Inc.
• Man Up Brooklyn, Inc.
• Save Our Streets Justice Innovation, Inc.
• University Settlement Society of New York Switching Lifestyles
• The Wick Against Violence, Southside United Housing Development Fund, Corp.

Bronx

• Bronx Raises Against Gun Violence, Good Shepherds Services
• Guns Down Lives Up, Lincoln Hospital
• Release the Grip Urban Youth Alliance International, Inc.
• Save our Streets Justice Innovation, Inc.
• Stand Up to Violence, Jacobi Hospital

Manhattan

• Getting Out, Standing Against Violence East Harlem
• Harlem Mothers Stop Another Violent End, Inc.
• Manhattan Legal Aid Society
• Not Another Child, Inc.
• Street Corner Resources, Speak Peace Forward

Queens

• 100 Suits for 100 Men
• Community Capacity Development
• King of Kings Foundation, Inc.
• Life Camp, Inc.
• Queens Royal Priesthood, Inc.
• Wheelchairs Against Gun Violence
• Where Do We Go From Here

Staten Island

• Central Family Life Center, True 2 Life

Mayor Adams’ Record on Public Safety

The NYPD is one of New York City’s first lines of defense against gun violence, and officers continue to save countless lives every day by continuing to remove illegal firearms from city streets. The department’s focused enforcement helped make 2024 the fourth-lowest year for shootings in the city’s recorded history, and now, in the first 11 months of 2025, New York City has seen both the lowest number of shooting incidents and shooting victims ever recorded in an 11-month span, beating the previous recorded low set in 2018 by 44 incidents. For the first 11 months of 2025, shooting incidents decreased by 22.7 percent compared to the same period last year, representing 191 fewer shooting incidents.

These record-low crime numbers were largely driven by the NYPD’s Fall Violence Reduction Plan, a data-driven, precision-policing strategy to combat shootings and all violent crime. The plan consists of 54 zones covering 38 communities, with up to 1,800 uniformed officers assigned to nightly foot posts in precincts, public housing, and the subway system. Since its inception on October 13, overall index crime is down 16.4 percent and shootings are down 36.4 percent in the zones during deployment hours.

The NYPD’s ongoing work to target and take down the most dangerous gangs also plays a role in driving down shootings and removing guns from the streets. So far this year, NYPD detectives have carried out 61 gang-related takedowns, and the department has seized more than 5,200 illegal guns since January — bringing the total number of illegal guns seized since January 1, 2022 to over 25,000.

The fall plan results continue the precision police work initiated on May 5, 2025, when the NYPD deployed more than 2,000 officers to 72 summer violence zones in 40 precincts, eight housing police service areas, and 10 transit commands. During the summer months deployment, crime in those zones declined 18.3 percent — with over 400 fewer victims — and included decreases in all seven major crime categories. Also, in the summer violence zones, shooting incidents declined by 47.3 percent and shooting victims declined by 43.8 percent. Every borough in the city saw crime declines in their respective summer zones, with Staten Island down 70.8 percent, Queens down 36.2 percent, Manhattan down 22.7 percent, Brooklyn down 11.2 percent, and the Bronx down 10.2 percent.

Overall, major crimes also continue to trend downward across the five boroughs. In November 2025, major crime declined 5.6 percent citywide, driven by decreases in most major crime categories, as well as notable reductions in transit crime, housing development crime, and retail theft. From January through November 2025, major crime citywide dropped 3.1 percent compared to the same period last year, resulting in 3,621 fewer victims of major crimes across the five boroughs.

Out of the more than 25,000 guns seized since the beginning of the Adams administration, over 1,600 of them have been identified as ghost guns — unserialized, and therefore untraceable, firearms that are assembled through components purchased either as a kit, as separate pieces, or manufactured using 3-D printers. These weapons are fully functioning firearms and often end up in the hands of criminals as well as underage purchasers. Incidents involving ghost guns reflect a dangerously escalating trend — one that the NYPD is leading the charge against. The NYPD recovered 17 ghost guns in 2018, 48 in 2019, 150 in 2020, 263 in 2021, 528 in 2022, 401 in 2023, 435 in 2024, and already 295 so far in 2025.

In July 2024, Mayor Adams led a charge supporting an effort urging the U.S. Supreme Court to uphold commonsense ghost gun regulations. Along with Mayors Against Illegal Guns and Manhattan District Attorney Alvin L. Bragg, Jr., Mayor Adams announced the filing of an amicus brief in the U.S. Supreme Court case of Garland v. VanDerStok, in support of federal regulations issued by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives that require ghost gun parts to have serial numbers and compel background checks for prospective buyers of ghost gun home-assembly kits.

Every firearm taken off a city street is only one part of the equation. Ensuring meaningful consequences for the small percentage of New Yorkers who carry illegal firearms and commit acts of violence is equally critical. The 2019 state legislative changes to discovery were necessary to improve the fairness of the criminal justice system, however, some of the consequences have crippled the system, leading to case dismissals for technical violations and increased case processing times, including for firearm charges. Prior to discovery reform, local district attorneys declined to prosecute or dismissed 32 percent of non-violent felony cases in New York City — that number increased to nearly 52 percent in 2024.

Ending gun violence continues to be Mayor Adams’ top priority. In his first month in office, in January 2022, Mayor Adams released the “Blueprint to End Gun Violence,” which laid out his priorities to immediately address the crisis of guns on New York City streets. Pursuant to the blueprint, in March 2022, the NYPD launched its Neighborhood Safety Teams to focus on gun violence prevention in areas that account for a disproportionate amount of citywide shootings.

Mayor Adams’ comprehensive gun violence strategy also includes upstream solutions guided by the Gun Violence Prevention Task Force he established in June 2022, which focuses on diversion programs, prevention efforts, and expanded opportunities for young people — all targeting the root causes of gun violence to ensure a safer environment for all New Yorkers. The task force’s commitments are formalized in the “Blueprint for Community Safety,” an investment of nearly $500 million to create safer, more resilient communities, with a focus on intervention and prevention.

The Adams administration also leads the Gun Violence Strategies Partnership, a 30+ multi-agency law enforcement partnership focused on strengthening investigations and prosecutions of the most severe gun offenders who drive violence in New York City. Members of the team meet every weekday morning to review felony gun violence arrests from the previous 24 hours and share intelligence to ensure perpetrators are held accountable and New Yorkers are kept safe. The partnership reviewed more than 700 cases in 2024, resulting in 85.5 percent of individuals being held on bail or remanded.

Today’s announcement continues to build on Mayor Adams’ “End the Culture of Anything Goes” campaign, which highlights the work the administration has done to date to change the culture and laws that prevented people with severe mental illness from getting the help they needed, while simultaneously making the investments necessary to support outreach, harm reduction, wraparound services, and housing — all in an effort to make lasting impacts in lives and communities. Mayor Adams is bringing the same energy and approach that proved to be successful in carving a new path to help people with severe mental illness to address other health crises, like gun violence, playing out on city streets.

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