Illegal-gun seizures are at their lowest rate in four years, according to NYPD data exclusively provided to The Post — numbers that carry alarming consequences, according to experts.
Through Nov. 8 this year, the department removed 3,953 guns, roughly 88 a week — a 13% drop from last year, and a rate that hasn’t been this low since 2015, when about 86 guns per week were confiscated, NYPD data show.
Cops seized about 97 guns per week in 2016 and 98 a week in 2017.
“Fewer guns seized means more people shot and more lives lost. Full stop. There is no debate,” said Eugene O’Donnell, a professor at John Jay College and a former NYPD officer, who put the blame on Hizzoner’s shoulders.
“The mayor pinned a medal on himself for reining in the police. He considers himself a great historical figure for this,” O’Donnell said. “He needs to come clean now.”
A spokesman for the mayor did not immediately return a request for comment.
NYPD spokesman Al Baker noted that a reduction in crime — the seven major felonies tracked by the NYPD are down 1.7% this year — could mean fewer guns entering the city.
The NYPD noted that fluctuations in gun confiscations are to be expected and pointed to a 12% uptick in gun-related arrests through Nov. 3 compared to the same period five years ago. Gun arrests are up 14% this year from 2018.
“While crime data can show variations over short periods, sustained crime declines are what matter to city residents and what the NYPD continues to achieve,” Baker said.
NYPD Chief of Department Terence Monahan said “the NYPD is highly focused on keeping illegal guns out of New York City and the hands of the few violent individuals who would use them to do harm. Every shooting incident involves a gun, and every person shot and injured is a millimeter away from being killed. Having fewer illegal firearms on our streets saves lives and keeps people safe.”
Meanwhile, the data show that de Blasio has kept his promise to virtually eliminate stop-and-frisk following a 2013 court ruling that the NYPD’s use of the tactic was unconstitutional.
Street stops were down to 11,000 last year from 191,000 in 2013, the last year of former Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s tenure. During the height of the city’s stop-and-frisk blitz, cops made 203,500 stops from January through March 2012.
Hizzoner has championed the change.
“We’re here today to turn the page on one of the most divisive problems in our city,” de Blasio said at a 2013 news conference announcing the city would eliminate the practice of random stop-and-searches.
“We believe in ending the overuse of stop-and-frisk that has unfairly targeted young African American and Latino men.”
Meanwhile, shootings and murders citywide are up 3.6% and 4.9%, respectively, from last year, according to NYPD data through Nov. 10. More than half of the shootings are gang-related, police noted.
In one of the most recent incidents of gunplay, Luis Dela Cruz, 20, was shot multiple times in front of his twin brother and a group of friends in Inwood neighborhood on Thursday. He later died at the hospital.
Police were still investigating as of Saturday, and no arrests had been made.