NEW YORK (WCBS 880) -- President Joe Biden is visiting New York City on Thursday to meet with Mayor Eric Adams and Gov. Kathy Hochul as part of a fresh effort to combat gun violence and stem the stream of illegal firearms into the city.
Biden arrived at JFK Airport in Queens just before noon and went to lower Manhattan, where he was taking part in a gun violence strategies meeting at NYPD headquarters with Adams, Hochul, and U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland, among other officials.
Later on Thursday, Biden, Adams, Hochul and Garland will visit a public school in Queens to discuss community violence intervention programs. The president is set to depart the city around 6:15 p.m.
Speaking on WCBS 880 on Thursday morning, Adams said the meeting is about figuring out a way to utilize city, state and federal resources for a “9/11 response to the terror of [gun] violence that’s playing out on American cities.”
Adams said police removed 6,000 guns from city streets last year and 400 guns since he assumed office this year but that firearms “keep coming because we're not turning off the tap.”
“We are feeding the sea of violence from many rivers,” the mayor said, calling for additional funds for local and federal law enforcement, as well as for grassroots organizations working to stop the violence before it starts.
Speaking from the NYPD's headquarters Thursday afternoon, Biden said he and Garland would do just that with a multipronged approach that combats and prevents gun violence by supporting both law enforcement and communities, while targeting rogue dealers and repeat gun offenders.
“Mayor Adams, you say that gun violence is a sea fed by many rivers, well I put forward a plan to dam up some of those streams,” the president said.
Biden said his administration is expanding its crackdown on untraceable "ghost" guns and firearms trafficking along the East Coast with more aggressive action against the gunrunners who come to New York from other states, particularly up I-95 from the South, a corridor known as the “iron pipeline.”
The president’s initiative also includes more funding for police officers on the beat and money for community programs that offer kids an alternative to a life of crime on the streets.
Speaking at police headquarters, Biden acknowledged the two NYPD officers who were killed in a Harlem ambush on Jan. 21 and the families of gun violence victims who had to “bury a piece of their soul in the deep earth.”
“Six NYPD officers have been victims of gun violence so far just this year,” the president said. “It’s enough, enough is enough because we know we can do things about this.”
Adams thanked the president for coming and helping the city battle a “public health crisis” of gun violence amid the pandemic.
“There is no recovery without public safety, there is no recovery without justice. They go hand in hand. That is why we are working in lockstep to end the gun violence that has shaken our city, our nation,” Adams said after Biden spoke. “To protect our people and the officers who’ve sworn to protect us and restore the American dream of safety, stability and prosperity. That is why the president is here in New York City today—he understands how serious this moment is.”
During his 880 interview earlier in the day, Adams praised a new task force set up by Biden that has the FBI, ATF and Department of Justice meeting regularly with the NYPD.
“Every day at 10 a.m. we’re sitting down and we’re talking about the trigger-pullers, the shooters, we’re connecting cases,” the mayor said. “This is the energy that we need to go after these dealers, and it is a unique relationship—not like before, a loose-knit relationship—this is a concerted effort to go after those that are actually carrying out the violence in our city.”
Biden's visit comes as illegal guns flood the streets and shootings claims scores of lives, including those of police officers. It’s a chance for the president to try to push back against criticism from Republicans that he is soft on crime, and to distance himself from those in the left flank of his Democratic Party who want to shift funding away from police departments to social spending programs.
Guns are at the center of the debate as the nation grapples with homicides that spiked nationally in 2020, the final year of the Trump administration. Even before the spike, 75% of all homicides in the U.S. were due to firearm injuries and guns were responsible for 91% of youth homicides, according to a January report by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control on gun violence and suicides over 2018-2019.
That violence continues today. In New York City last month, an 11-month-old girl was wounded by a stray bullet and a teenage fast-food cashier shot to death. Nationwide, 32 officers have been shot on the job, five fatally, including the two NYPD officers, one of whom was buried Wednesday.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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