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Mayor Adams on gun crime: NYC will 'crack down on trigger pullers'

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Updated  January 26, 2022 11:02pm EST
New York City
FOX 5 NY

NY taking on illegal guns

Mayor Eric Adams is working with Governor Kathy Hochul and several other states to form a task force to deal with the pipeline of illegal guns being brought to New York City and driving a recent spike in gun violence.

NEW YORK - New York City Mayor Eric Adams has tough talk for so-called  "trigger pullers"  terrorizing this city.

"There is a total disregard by a small number of violent New Yorkers that believe they can carry guns and to use them at will," Adams told FOX 5 NY. "We are going to go to 30 precincts where 80% of the gun violence is now located and crack down on trigger pullers."

Adams has announced that he is partnering with Governor Kathy Hochul who just announced a new interstate task force on illegal guns.

"This is a new day dawning," Governor Hochul said on Wednesday. "We are coming at this issue with all the resources we can deploy.  The human capitol, the relationships,  the partnerships  to stop the scourge of illegal guns coming into our state."

Mayor Eric Adams on gun violence in NYC

FOX 5 NY spoke with New York City Mayor Eric Adams about the new task force that is aiming to stop the flow of illegal firearms and his plan to stop the bloodshed on the city's streets.

A recent spike in gun violence in New York City sparking public outrage. 11-month-old baby Catherine is recovering after being hit by a stray bullet while strapped in a car seat caught in the crossfire of a gunfight in the Bronx.  

RELATED: Bronx baby shooting: $10,000 reward

On Tuesday, a gunman shot another patient while inside the emergency room at Jacoby Medical Center.

RELATED: Suspect in NYC hospital shooting had signed in, cops say

All this as the city and police department mourn the lives of Officers Jason Rivera and Wilbert Mora both ambushed during a domestic call. All of these cases have one thing in common: illegal guns.

RELATED: NYPD hero cop Wilbert Mora saved 5 lives with his organs

Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clark says many of the illegal guns that  end up on New York City streets arrive by coming up the so-called 'Iron Pipeline'.    

Weapons bought in southern states where gun laws are more lenient then transported north to be sold here.

"I got real crime and real violence in my community, and I need to get ahead of it and that's what I'm doing by stopping gun traffickers like we're doing in this case today," Clark said.

RELATED: College student sold 73 guns to undercover officer: Bronx DA

On Wednesday, a college student from New York City was indicted for selling 73 firearms from Tennessee, including  59-loaded weapons to an undercover police officer in the Bronx and Manhattan.

Investigators say 23-year old Shakor Rodriguez  carried the weapons in a duffel bag as he rode the bus to New York City. Clark said "he was trafficking guns here in the Bronx. Being a student there in Tennessee and, you know, traveling overnight and coming back to New York City, selling guns in the very same neighborhood where he lived."