New York City Mayor Eric Adams on Tuesday called for a "national response" to rising gun violence in the U.S. just hours after 10 people were shot at and six others reported injuries at a Brooklyn subway attack.
While speaking to CNN, the new mayor acknowledged that city officials will require more assistance with gun regulation moving ahead, despite recovering more than 1,800 guns in the last four months.
According to Adams, 10% of the 1,800 seized guns, or approximately 180 of them, were so-called ghost guns, which are untraceable and made from kits.
"We're going to continue to do our job, but there is some assistance that's going to be needed in our city, such as an empowering ATF," said Adams, referring to the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
He added: "Bringing [in] the ATF leader as [President Joe Biden] announced yesterday, and making ghost guns illegal. There's so many things that we could do to assist the cities across America, particularly New York City, to make sure that we're a safe place for our residents."
New York City has experienced a crime spike this year, with some media outlets reporting an across-the-board uptick of 36.5%.
Adams recently cited the "revolving door of criminal justice system" as a primary reason for the poor early showing.
"We know that there's a real challenge. Many of the people who are on our streets that have participated in dangerous acts — they have had a bottleneck in our court system," said Adams, a retired New York City police officer.
"They are not serving their time in prison like they should be. We witness what I call a revolving door of the criminal justice system, where too many people who are known to participate in criminal actions are still on our streets. And so it's a combined effort, and we want to continue to do our part," he added.
At a Brooklyn subway station earlier in the day, an assailant emptied a smoke canister on the N train, then opened fire on passengers.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said the attacker was still at large. The assailant's motive for committing the shooting has yet to be determined.
While speaking to reporters on Tuesday aboard Air Force One, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said the Biden administration would offer its full support to New York City.
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