By Michael Gartland
New York Daily News
NEW YORK — Mayor Adams vowed Tuesday that law enforcement’s slow response to the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, wouldn’t happen in New York City because of the training the NYPD and other first responders receive.
“That is not going to happen in New York,” Adams said during an appearance on MSNBC early Tuesday morning. “The goal is to go in and stop that immediate threat right away.”
Adams said that “not only would the police go in with an active shooter, but the FDNY [and] the EMS.”
“They’re trained to go in with an active shooter,” he said, and then added of the shooting in Uvalde: “It appears as though this was treated more like a barricaded armed person or a hostage negotiation scenario instead of an active shooter.”
In the days after the mass murder at the Robb Elementary School, police who responded have come under fire for being far too slow to confront gunman Salvador Ramos.
Nineteen students and two teachers were killed in the shooting, as was Ramos.
As it was unfolding inside the school’s walls, frantic parents begged police outside to do something, but precious minutes were wasted as they waited for a key to the classroom Ramos had barricaded himself in.
Last Friday, Steven McCraw, the Texas Department of Public Safety director, said that, at the time, the commanding officer who responded believed “no more children [were] at risk.”
On Sunday, the U.S. Justice Department announced that it would probe the local law enforcement’s response to the shooting.
Stemming the flow of guns into New York City has been a key issue for Adams since he became mayor in January. In that effort, he’s focused much of his attention on hand guns and ghost guns, which are sold piecemeal online and are nearly impossible to trace.
In Texas, Ramos used an AR-15-style assault rifle, which he purchased days after his 18th birthday.
On Tuesday, Adams said that while handguns are the main focus for him and other big-city mayors, he’s also very concerned about the proliferation of assault weapons and said they are creating an “extreme disadvantage” for cops who have to respond to shootings.
Adams is planning to meet with mayors from around New York State later on Tuesday to discuss ways to prevent gun violence. He also said he was planning to call Uvalde Mayor Don McLaughlin “because this is a mayor’s battle.”
“We saw just last week two guns outside a school. Inside a school, a young man had two loaded — 15 years old — had two loaded guns in his backpack,” Adams said. “We also saw another child the next day that had a loaded gun in his backpack. He was 13.”
And then there are the assault weapons. Because of the higher caliber bullets assault rifles require, a slug from one causes much more severe injury if the target is shot.
“We have to have an extensive stop-the-bleed training for those types of bullets,” Adams said.
Add to that, he said, the tactical training that’s now available to people online and the fact that in many school shootings, Uvalde included, the gunman was wearing tactical, bulletproof gear, which makes it much more difficult for law enforcement to stop them, especially if they’re using standard-issue 9-mm. pistols.
“America is up against a real battle, and Congress must stop thinking that we are not up against a crisis,” he said.
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