Here's some (possibly) good news for the NYPD: the number of recovered firearms dropped 8% last year, from 5,537 to 5,135, according to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Though that does leave open the possibility that the NYPD just isn't finding all of the guns, it's still a sign of improvement. Most of the guns happened to come from states Bloomberg has accused of being too lenient on background checks—Virginia, Pennsylvania, Georgia, North Carolina and Florida. 395 of the guns came from within New York.
Other data shows most of the guns' possessors were between the ages of 18 and 30, and the "time-to-crime" (time from firearm's purchase to recovery in connection with a crime) was over 3 years for over 2,000 of the recovered guns. One ATF spokesman told the Post, "The ATF data validates our illegal gun trafficking strategy, and we will continue to do everything we can to keep illegal guns off our streets and keep New Yorkers safe." The report comes at a time when murder is up 20% from last year and the NYPD is worried budget cuts would further stretch their forces.
