New York Attorney General Letitia James, alongside New York City Mayor Eric Adams, have filed lawsuits against numerous online gun distributors for fueling the gun violence crisis.
In her lawsuit, James invokes a newly enacted Public Nuisance statute to hold 10 gun retailers responsible, alleging that these gun distributors sold tens of thousands of illegal, unfinished frames and receivers to New Yorkers who converted them into what are known as "ghost guns" at home by using basic tools. These "homemade" guns are untraceable due to the fact that the lack serial numbers.
According to James, the gun distributors violated a number of laws by selling weapons to felons and without a background check.
“While families mourned loved ones lost to senseless gun violence, gun sellers avoided accountability for the illegal and dangerous weapons they sold,” James said in a statement. “There should be no more immunity for gun distributors bringing harm and havoc to New York. Today’s lawsuit holds 10 gun sellers accountable for fueling the gun violence crisis and endangering New Yorkers. Illegal guns do not belong on our streets or in our communities and we will use every tool necessary to root them out.”
Get Tri-state area news and weather forecasts to your inbox. Sign up for NBC New York newsletters.
Through her lawsuit, which was filed in New York County Supreme Court, James wants to prohibit each of the businesses she is suing from selling, shipping, distributing, or supplying unfinished frames or receivers lacking serial numbers to New Yorkers. James is also asking for restitution and damages. Through her lawsuit, James also looks to obtain public corrective statements from the businesses when it comes to what she describes as false and misleading statements as well as omissions on their part.
In addition, James’ lawsuit seeks to require each of the gun distributors to contribute to an abatement fund to eliminate the public nuisance they are accused of, which will also be used to combat the state's gun violence crisis.
The lawsuit comes as New York is grappling with a gun violence, with a major culprit, according to the state, being "ghost guns." New York City said that the NYPD recovered 17 ghost guns in 2018, 48 in 2019, 150 in 2020, 263 in 2021, and has already recovered 180 this year as of June 26 — a 181% increase over the same time period last year.
Simultaneously, Adams filed his own lawsuit in federal court against five of the same online gun distributors as James.
“We are not going to let gun companies turn New York City into a city of mail-order murder,” Adams said. “Whether they are hidden in the trunks of cars or packed in a plain brown box, ghost guns are illegal in our city, and we will take every lawful action possible to stop gun retailers from profiting at the expense of the safety of our city. That’s why, this morning, the City of New York filed its own lawsuit against five online gun retailers that are illegally selling and delivering ghost gun components to addresses here in this city. We will not stand by while illegal operators flout the law, endanger our communities, and kill our young people.”
New York City is asking the court to issue a preliminary injunction and order the gun distributors to immediately stop selling ghost guns into New York City. According to the city, although it has been illegal to sell ghost guns into the Big Apple since February 2020, a Sheriff Office’s undercover investigation revealed that the five gun distributors being sued by the city continue to ignore the city’s restrictions.
The NYPD announced earlier this month that there was a slight increase in gun arrests compared to the same time period last year, a continued upward trend in gun arrests that is at a 28-year high.
"There were 414 gun arrests in May 2022, bringing the total number of citywide gun arrests in 2022 to 2,007 – a 4.4% increase compared with the 1,923 gun arrests through the first five months of 2021," the NYPD said earlier this month when releasing their latest data for the month of May. "In its continuing work to eradicate gun violence, the NYPD has seized approximately 3,080 firearms so far in 2022, at a time when its gun arrests are at a 28-year high."
While there has been an increase in gun arrests, there has been a reduction in shootings last month, compared to the same time period last year. The NYPD attributed this to the rollout of the new Neighborhood Safety teams, the NYPD's Gun Violence Suppression Division, and the Ghost Gun Team of the department's Criminal Intelligence Section, which all continue to intersect illegal firearms coming into the city though what the department calls the "iron pipeline" as well as the "plastic pipeline."
Adams said that these weapons are "being used by murderers."
This latest development comes mere days after the Supreme Court of the United States struck down a New York law that regulated who is allowed to carry a concealed weapon in public, expanding gun rights nationwide at a time when the country is reeling from a series of recent mass shooting.
