Transcript: Mayor Eric Adams Appears Live on PIX11

June 24, 2022

Tamsen Fadal: All right. Joining us right now is Mayor Eric Adams. Talk more about this Mayor Adams. Thanks so much for being with us this afternoon.

Mayor Eric Adams: Thank you. I'm happy to be here. It's unfortunate that we're having a conversation like this.

Fadal: Well you know, New York is a safe haven state, and that's what we want to talk with you about. How is the city prepared at this point to handle any influx of women possibly coming here to seek abortion services?

Mayor Adams: In anticipation of this ruling, our team, several weeks ago when we thought that the Supreme Court was going to do this. We immediately reached out to the deputy mayor, Williams-Isom, who deals with health and social services, and Dr. Vasan, and started to put together our blueprint of number one, allowing those from our neighboring states and other states to come here if they seek to terminate a pregnancy. And also to do an information campaign to get that information out there. We're continuing to meet with our legal experts to find out what more we can do to assist our brothers and sisters in other states.

Fadal: What about with regard to protecting the clinics providing them?

Mayor Adams: Today, this morning, the police commissioner communicated with me and she also sent over a photo of what appeared to have been a suspicious device. It was not, but she's clearly in tune with making sure that we do special assignments patrol at certain locations. We're going to convene a meeting with many of the professionals that are running these healthcare facilities so that we can update them on how to properly report something that's suspicious so we could protect those who are seeking their services.

Kori Chambers: I want to ask you about another big ruling from the Supreme Court. We talked a lot about it yesterday. Yesterday you were saying as we learned that the Supreme Court is striking down New York's concealed carry law. You said that New York City cannot become the Wild West. I believe, is almost a quote from you, or paraphrasing at least. I'm curious though.

Chambers: When you look at the gun violence that we have in this city, how much of it, and I don't need an exact percentage, but my sense is that a very small part of it would be from the people who are legally registered to carry a gun. So how would allowing people that are already legally allowed to carry a gun, they've been vetted whatnot, to have concealed carry, how would that turn the city into a Wild West if we're already seeing crime from people that are criminals?

Mayor Adams: That is a great question, and let's be clear. Two days in a row the Supreme Court made decisions that are going to impact health and public safety. Two days in a row. Think about the question that you just asked. What we do know based on law enforcement practices, we know that those who carry guns, legally or illegally after a dispute, that a law-abiding citizen would have bad days from time to time. That same citizen, a simple dispute, a traffic accident, on our crowded subway system which millions of riders use, gets into an argument. That law-abiding citizen now has a weapon on his side.

Mayor Adams: If you look at Times Square where over 350,000 people were last Monday, one person pulls out a gun to shoot, now everyone else that's carrying a gun is also going to think about shooting as well. So we're aggravating the illegal carriers of guns. Now you're going to have a large number of New Yorkers who are legally able to carry, not properly trained. Bullets don't discriminate when it leaves the barrel of a gun. It can kill innocent people. That it often happens when this takes place. And don't forget this also, one third of the people who die from guns commit suicides. So you are adding an extra layer of having guns in homes, around children, and also carried in our streets. That adds to the burden of the Police Department.

Chambers: But just to be clear, going back to my question, the crime that we are seeing, the crime that we are reporting on daily it seems like, the shootings and whatnot. That's not being driven by law-abiding citizens.

Mayor Adams: No, not at all. In fact, what you're seeing that we're doing here in the city, 30% decrease in shootings in April and May, 30% decrease in homicides in April and May. The last 10 weeks we've witnessed a decrease in shootings in this city. So all the work we are doing to dam the river of gun violence, the Supreme Court just created another river that would feed that sea of violence. We don't need people carrying guns in our city, particularly a city like New York with 8.8 million people.

Chambers: All right. Mr. Mayor, thank you so much for the time.

Mayor Adams: Thank you.
###