When it comes to crime numbers, it is in a politician’s best interests (as well as the NYPD) to cook the books and make sure that number is as low as possible. Public officials like Mayor Eric Adams and Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg are quick to point out the effectiveness of their gun violence prevention policies by citing NYPD statistics showing that shooting incidents have declined. However, they are misleading their constituents about the extent of gun violence in NYC.
When public officials talk about gun violence, they discuss trends in the number of “shooting incidents,” but that definition does not cover the full range of gun incidents that actually occur. In fact, the current definition of “shooting incidents” reduces the official gun-involved crime numbers to only include incidents where a person is shot.
What is a shooting incident?
According to the NYPD Crime and Enforcement Activity Report, a shooting incident occurs only when a firearm is discharged, and the bullet strikes a victim:
Classification as a Shooting incident is based upon a bullet striking the victim. A Shooting incident therefore contains complaints for violent crimes such as Rape, Robbery and Felonious Assault as well as Murders committed with a firearm. This category therefore is not mutually exclusive with the broad crime classifications used in the other tables and charts within this report but is meant to isolate those specific instances where firearms are used to cause harm regardless of the other crimes committed.
Therefore, crimes where guns are brandished or discharged, but no bullet strikes a victim, do not count as a shooting incident and are not factored into gun violence data. Such crimes do not become part of the larger conversation about gun violence.
Gun-involved Crimes
Violent crime statistics issued by the NYPD such as murder, robbery, rape, and felony assaults do not breakdown the types of weapons used in those crimes. Therefore, the NYPD does not release any statistics relating to overall violent crime involving the use of firearms, so the public does not have a complete picture of gun violence. NYC residents are not safer from gun violence merely because shooting incidents have declined over previous years nor safer if the data does not capture the actions of shooters who have poor aim.
In 2023, the number of shooting incidents declined 24.7% to 974 incidents compared to 1,294 shooting incidents in 2022. However, the number of shooting incidents were about 2% of violent crimes in NYC, many of which involved firearms. During the same period, the number of violent felonies increased 2.4% to 46,623 in 2023 compared to 45,529 in 2022. Without more transparent data, we cannot figure out the number of gun-involved crimes and any changes from year-to-year. Gun-involved crimes might have increased while shooting incidents decreased. This begs the question, how are violent felonies increasing while “gun violence” is decreasing?
Gucci Robbery
On February 20, 2024, three gun-wielding bandits stole $51,000 worth of merchandise from a Gucci store in Manhattan in broad daylight without firing a single bullet. According to ABC News:
The suspects, two men, and a woman had their identities disguised as they burst into the store, displayed a gun, and told everyone in the store to get down.
Unfortunately, the NYPD will not report the Gucci robbery as gun violence. Instead, the NYPD will classify it as a robbery because no one was struck by a bullet.
Written by.
Sam Antar
© Copyright by Sam Antar. All rights reserved.
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