Adding to a growing tradition of making political statements at the Met Gala, New York City Mayor Eric Adams on Monday sported a waistcoat that had the words “End Gun Violence” boldly emblazoned on it.
Walking the red carpet arm-in-arm with his partner, Tracy Collins, Mayor Adams attracted attention to the rising incidents of fatal shootings in his city, where a subway shooting left 10 people dead last month.
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Statistics released by the New York City Police Department (NYPD) for crimes in March 2022 revealed that shootings in the city had risen by 16.2%, up to 115 incidents from 99 in March 2021. For the first quarter of 2022, NYC saw more than 322 citywide shootings, a jump of 70% over in comparison to the same period last year.
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The NYPD also said that it had made 410 gun arrests in March alone, taking the total gun-related arrests made in the first quarter of this year to more than 1,200, making it the highest number of arrests since the first quarter of 2021, when 1,385 such arrests were made.
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That being said, Adams’ “End Gun Violence” message can hardly be said to be applicable to NYC alone, with Chicago witnessing shootings over the weekend that left 8 dead and 16 injured.
Indeed, according to the Gun Violence Archive, which records data on shooting incidents in the US, the subway shooting in NYC last month marked the 131st mass shooting in the country since the turn of the year, and alarmingly, the trend seems to be on the rise.
