Mayor Adams Announces Removal of Over 2,200 Illegal Firearms From New York City Streets Since Beginning of 2025 Alone as Shootings and Homicides hit new Record Lows

June 3, 2025

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Gun Seizures Have Led to Three Consecutive Years of Shooting and Homicide Declines, Shootings Down 54 Percent, Homicides Down Over 41 Percent Under Adams Administration

Announcement Comes During Gun Violence Awareness Month, Administration’s Continued Promise to Eradicate Gun Violence

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 already removed more than 2,200 illegal firearms from New York City streets since the beginning of 2025 — bringing the total number of firearms seized since the start of Adams administration to 22,016. The significant firearm seizure figure represents more than 3,000 additional illegal guns removed from New York City streets compared to the three years before Mayor Adams came into office, between 2019 and 2021 — all leading to a 53.9 percent decrease in shootings and a 41.4 percent decrease in homicides under Mayor Adams’ leadership. Today’s announcement comes during National Gun Violence Awareness Month — a time to honor victims of gun violence and call for meaningful action to end it.
“This National Gun Violence Awareness Month, as we honor and remember victims of gun crimes, we are making good on our promise to eradicate gun violence from our city, once and for all,” said Mayor Adams. “Since the beginning of this year alone, the NYPD has already removed more than 2,200 illegal firearms off our streets — weapons that can no longer threaten the safety of our neighborhoods, our families, or our children. Each illegal gun we take off our streets is saving lives and damming up one more river that leads to the sea of violence. And, as a result, last month, we saw record decreases in shootings and homicides — helping lead to the lowest number of shootings and homicides year-to-date in recorded history. Thanks to the tireless work of the NYPD, and the upstream and downstream investments our administration is making, New York City remains the safest big city in America.”

“Today, the mayor announced an unprecedented achievement: the lowest number of shootings and homicides in recorded history over the first five months of the year,” said NYPD Commissioner Tisch. “Results like this never happen by accident, and certainly not at a time when the state’s criminal justice laws have made a revolving door out of our criminal justice system. Here’s how your mayor and your NYPD cops delivered the safest January–May for gun violence in New York City’s history: three-plus years of relentlessly going after guns on our streets and a data-driven policing strategy that puts more cops in the right places at the right times to do what they do better than anyone else in the world. We will not let up. Our summer violence reduction plan is bold and aggressive and designed to continue driving the same historic safety gains.”

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 take illegal firearms off the streets. Last year marked the fourth-lowest year in recorded history for shooting incidents citywide, and from January through May 2025, shootings and homicides declined to historic lows, with homicides falling 27.3 percent to 112 homicides, and shooting incidents plummeting to 264, or declining 20 percent. In May 2025, shooting incidents decreased by 38.6 percent compared to the previous year, representing 41 fewer shooting victims, following a decrease of 23.1 percent in shootings in the first quarter of 2025 (January to March) — the lowest number of shooting incidents in New York City’s recorded history for any quarter.

Overall major crimes also continue to trend downward. In May 2025, there was a 4.9 percent decrease in major crime citywide, led by double digit declines in murder, which plummeted 45.5 percent, and burglary, which was down 12.5 percent. Significant declines continued in robbery, felony assault, and grand larceny, resulting in 3,128 fewer victims of major crime in New York City so far this year, when compared to the same period last year.

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 possess illegal firearms and commit violence against one another. 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 51 percent in 2023.

Out of the more than 22,000 guns seized since the beginning of the Adams administration, nearly 1,500 of them have been identified as ghost guns — unserialized, and therefore untraceable, firearms that are put together by components purchased either as a kit or as separate pieces or printed through 3-D printers, and that are fully functioning as fully-finished, serialized firearms. These untraceable firearms 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, 585 in 2022, 394 in 2023, 438 in 2024, and already 71 in only the first five months of 2025.

In July 2024, Mayor Adams led the charge 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.  

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.

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