New York City is thought to have some of the toughest gun laws in the country. In fact, it seems easier to get a gun illegally here than to get approved for a license or permit and purchase one, as evidence by the recent eruption in firearm violence in our streets. If we are the most anti-gun big city in America, how could we allow the number of shootings in 2020 to have already surpassed the number of shootings in 2019, with four months to go? I thought the answer was pretty straightforward: The spike in shootings occurred right after the NYPD disbanded its plainclothes anti-crime unit in response to nationwide calls for police reform. But when I recently met with Police Commissioner Dermot Shea, he explained that the NYPD is still arresting plenty of illegal gun holders. The problem, he said, is that very few of these criminals are actually being punished by New York’s revolving-door court system. According to the NYPD, there are 2,152 individuals with open gun arrests between Jan. 1, 2019, and June 29, 2020. Of those individuals, 347 have prior gun arrests, 310 were on either probation or parole, 15 were arrested for shootings after their prior gun arrest, and 89 are wanted for or are suspects in shootings. When they aren’t firing their weapons, they are at the scene bearing witness to shootings, with 147 of these individuals currently sought as witnesses, or being shot themselves, with 29 falling victim to gun violence. But 1,937 of these individuals are no longer in custody.  [full article]