Deaths by gunfire in the city are down dramatically, far lower than the national rate, according to a new study — and Mayor Bloomberg credited his policing strategies for the downturn.
The number of firearm deaths — which are made up primarily of homicides, but also include suicides and accidental shootings — dropped from 524 in 2000 to 366 in 2011, a city Health Department study has found.
That represents a 31 percent decline during a time when the NYPD drastically increased its use of stop-and-frisk.
Bloomberg aides said they expect the death rate from guns would continue to drop, pointing out that murders by shooting accounted for 57 percent of total homicides in 2012 in the city, which had 419 murders last year.
By comparison, 87 percent of Chicago’s murders last year were caused by firearms, a Bloomberg aide noted.
Murders caused by firearms dropped from 434 in 2000 to 240 in 2012 — a 45 percent drop — according to the mayor’s office.
In his weekly radio address yesterday, Bloomberg credited the city’s tough gun-possession laws and “smart, proactive policing that makes it much more likely that if you break our city’s gun laws, you’ll be caught.”
In cities like New York where the majority of murders are done with guns, lowering the firearms murder rate necessarily impacts the overall figures.
It seems like New York is doing something right.
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