Within the first six months of 2022, New York State Police seized 98 percent more guns than the prior year. Governor Kathy Hochul released the figures during a recent press conference. Following a meeting of the Interstate Task Force on Illegal Guns at the New York State Intelligence Center in East Greenbush, Gov. Hochul, who just won the Democratic primary for Governor, spoke about the increase in seizures.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams touches a gun during a news conference with New York Attorney General Letitia James and others to announce a new lawsuit against "ghost gun" distributors on June 29, 2022 in New York City. The city's lawsuit is against 10 distributors of gun components which are used in the illegal, and largely untraceable "ghost guns" that have significantly contributed to the violence on the streets of New York City. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

New York Gun Seizure Highlights

- During the first six months of 2022, from January and June, State Police seized 662 guns, which is a 98 percent increase compared to the same period in 2021.
- Gun seizures outside of New York City are up 94 percent compared to 2020 and 40 percent compared to 2021.
- So far this year, State Police have conducted 346 gun-tracing investigations.
- Various law enforcement agencies have seized 360 Ghost guns this year, so far. State Police have seized 65 ghost guns year-to-date.

A ghost gun is displayed before the start of an event about gun violence in the Rose Garden of the White House April 11, 2022 in Washington, DC. Biden announced a new firearm regulation aimed at reining in ghost guns, untraceable, unregulated weapons made from kids. Biden also announced Steve Dettelbach as his nominee to lead the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF). (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

Governor Hochul said,

We are aggressively ramping up our efforts to get deadly weapons—including ghost guns—off of our streets, and have developed hundreds of investigative leads spanning 22 states—work resulting in the first discernible reduction in gun violence in more than two years. While this is undeniable progress, our work is just getting started.