NEW YORK (WCBS 880) — Gov. Kathy Hochul on Wednesday convened the first meeting of the newly formed Interstate Task Force on Illegal Guns with Mayor Eric Adams.
During the first-of-its-kind task force meeting, the governor stressed that statistics are showing a dramatic rise in gun violence, not just in New York, but across the country.
“Gun violence is a national crisis,” she said. “Ninety of the top 100 cities in America are seeing an escalation in gun violence.”
Hochul added that one of the task force’s main priorities now is to figure out “why now, more than before, are we seeing this increase.”
Members of the task force – which includes officers from the Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and law enforcement agents from all nine Northeast states – will be sharing data daily to track trends, according to the governor.
Meanwhile, Adams is hoping that the task force can use skills learned from the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks to help quell the flow of guns to New York and its surrounding area.
“It is time for us to use the same abilities that we displayed during September 11th to stop the external terrorist threat,” he said.
Adams, who has been vocal about his ambitions to end a “sea of violence” in New York City, pointed to the recent slaying of two NYPD officers – Wilbert Mora and Jason Rivera – as he called for the task force to do all they can to crackdown on gun violence.
“We cannot continue to lose 22-year-old children,” Adams said.
When asked if the task force would look to reevaluate New York’s controversial bail reform law, however, Hochul said she is still a strong supporter of the modifications.
“I will stand behind the fundamental promise on why we needed bail reform in the first place,” she said.
In addition to the creation of the task force, New York is also hiring more gun tracing crime analysts, as they have helped NYPD officers seize over 300 guns from city streets in just three weeks, according to Adams.
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