New York City has removed over 25,000 illegal guns from streets since Mayor Eric Adams assumed office in January 2022, according to his administration’s announcement Monday — just days before his term concludes.
Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani is scheduled to be sworn in on January 1.
The milestone tally includes more than 5,200 guns recovered this year alone.
The gun removals have coincided with a sustained drop in violence during Adams’ tenure, with shootings down 55% and homicides down 35.5% citywide, according to police data.
Officials stated that 2025 is on track to finish with the lowest number of shooting incidents and shooting victims ever recorded for an 11-month span.
Adams, a former NYPD captain who ran on restoring public safety, has repeatedly framed gun seizures as the core metric of his administration’s law-and-order agenda.
“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,” Adams said.
NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch said, “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.”
She added, “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.”
Police credited focused gun enforcement, gang takedowns, and data-driven violence reduction zones for driving the decline in shootings.
The NYPD said detectives carried out more than 60 gang-related takedowns this year, with firearms seizures remaining a daily priority.
Officials also highlighted the recovery of more than 1,600 ghost guns during Adams’ term — unserialized, untraceable weapons that are increasingly tied to violent crime.
