By Scott R. Axelrod
Staten Island Advance, N.Y.
NEW YORK — The NYPD has removed 1,054 firearms from New York City streets since January, continuing a gun violence reduction trend that has pushed shootings to historic lows, Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch announced Thursday.
Brooklyn accounted for the most seizures with 305 guns, followed by the Bronx with 251, Manhattan with 240, Queens with 194 and Staten Island with 64. Among the total, 52 were ghost guns, which are untraceable firearms without serial numbers.
The gun seizures have coincided with sharp declines in shooting incidents. The city recorded 81 shooting incidents and 95 shooting victims in January and February combined, breaking the previous all-time lows of 92 incidents and 105 victims set in 2025 and 2019.
Shooting incidents for the year-to-date are down 25% compared to 2024 and 40% compared to 2023.
“Since the start of 2026, the NYPD has removed over 1,000 guns from city streets, and the results are already clear,” Tisch said. “Because of the women and men of this department who are out on our streets focusing on the people carrying guns, building cases, and taking down violent gangs, we continue to seize these dangerous firearms and keep New Yorkers safe.”
Overall, the total number of firearms seized under Tisch’s leadership since she took the position in 2024 has reached more than 6,700.
Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez said the enforcement efforts are producing measurable outcomes.
“Taking illegal guns off the streets is one of the most effective ways to save lives, and Commissioner Tisch and the NYPD’s work to seize more than 1,000 firearms already this year is helping drive these historic reductions,” he said.
February alone marked record lows in shooting incidents, victims, murders and robberies in the city’s public housing developments.
The department’s Winter Violence Reduction Plan has deployed up to 1,800 uniformed officers to nightly foot posts across 64 zones in 33 precincts, public housing and the subway system.
Since the plan launched in January, major crime has dropped 25.2%, and shootings have declined 62.5% in those zones during deployment hours, Tisch noted.
New York Attorney General Letitia James said her office would continue collaborating with the NYPD . “Thanks to the NYPD’s hard work and our joint efforts, New York City continues to turn the tide against gun violence,” she said.
The 2026 figures build on 2025, which marked the safest year for gun violence on record. Last year saw 66 fewer shootings than 2018, which previously held the record for fewest shootings.
All five boroughs saw double-digit percent reductions in gun violence in 2025.
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