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President Joe Biden will arrive in New York City today and meet with Mayor Eric Adams to address the rising gun crime rate across the city.
The meeting was announced last week, shortly after a second New York police officer died as the result of a fatal shooting after responding to a 911 call in Harlem.
Gun crime in the Big Apple has been on the rise since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, and 2022 has gotten off to a worryingly similar start.
In January, The New York Daily News reported there had been a total of 1,562 recorded shootings in 2021, 30 more than in 2020.
Murders also continued to rise over the last year, with NYPD statistics revealing 488 recorded cases in 2021, up from the 462 reported in the previous year. This is a fraction of the almost 2,330 seen in 1990, but with murders falling to under 300 a year in 2018, concerns about New York City's violent crime rate continue to grow.
Those figures build on New York City's bleak 2020 record. According to NYPD figures, a total of 1,531 shootings were reported in the city in 2020, a staggering 97 percent increase on 2019. Murders also soared in 2020, with a 44 percent spike in homicides compared to the 319 murders seen in 2019.
Just yesterday, Wednesday, another NYPD officer was shot in an attempted carjacking as he was on his way to work. The officer is recovering in hospital in a stable condition.
Speaking after the shooting, Adams said: "We're going to lay out clear items we need on the federal level, just as we did with state lawmakers. Everyone must be on the same team. This department is going to fight to keep the city safe."
Biden will travel with Attorney General Merrick Garland and meet Adams as well as New York Governor Kathy Hochul to assess the spike in gun violence in the city and collectively seek viable solutions.
A White House statement said they will "discuss the Administration's comprehensive strategy to combat gun crime, which includes historic levels of funding for cities and states to put more cops on the beat and invest in community violence prevention and intervention programs, as well as stepped up federal law enforcement efforts against illegal gun traffickers."
Last month, the New York mayor a—former NYPD captain himself—released his Blueprint To End Gun Violence, which called for an increased number of officers patrolling the city, greater unity between city and State police, and the introduction of weapons checkpoints at bus and train stations across the city.
He also proposed the reintroduction of a controversial anti-gun plainclothes NYPD unit, which was disbanded in 2020.
Biden's upcoming visit is his first to New York City since Adams took office as Mayor at the beginning of the year. The President and the General Attorney will also visit community leaders in Queens to discuss measures to curb gun crime in the borough.
Adams and Biden previously met at the White House over the summer to discuss gun violence. The New York mayor also met Hochul recently for the first meeting of the new Interstate Task Force on Illegal Guns.
Biden and Garland are due to deliver a speech on Thursday and will likely highlight efforts already made by the administration to address violence concerns and bolster law enforcement.
Last year, the Democrats passed the American Rescue Plan, which was aimed at hiring additional police officers and increasing funding for local police departments.
Responding to criticism that the Biden administration had been weak on crime, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said recently: "I'm sorry for people who feel they need to be critical, but the president has been a longtime advocate of addressing crime. He's never been for defunding the police."
In July, the Justice Department implemented "firearm trafficking strike forces" in cities with high records of gun crime and violence, including New York City and Chicago, resulting in the confiscation of thousands of firearms.
Some of Biden's decisions on gun control have received a strong backlash from his Republican counterparts.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott claimed Biden's attempts to target 'ghost guns' were a "liberal power grab," while others in the Republican camp defined his gun control policies as "unconstitutional."
The Biden administration is still making sluggish progress on some of its key gun violence police issues. In September, Biden was forced to withdraw his nominee for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), David Chipman, following concerns from Republican and Independent senators. A replacement nominee has yet to be proposed.
The Biden administration has also been pressed by advocacy groups to implement stricter gun laws and implement tougher background checks.
Peter Ambler, executive director of the gun control group Giffords, said: "Enough excuses and inaction, [...] we are depending on President Biden to pass safer gun laws and enact effective gun violence prevention policies. We need a vote on universal background checks, continued investment in community violence intervention programs and reform at ATF."
