New York City Mayor Eric Adams and New York City Police Department (NYPD) Commissioner Jessica S. Tisch on Thursday celebrated the destruction of 3,375 seized illegal handguns and 200 rifles.

The firearms were only a small portion of the more than 21,400 seized firearms seized since Adams took over the administration.

The weapons were loaded onto a conveyor belt and fed to a gun chipper to be turned into scrap metal and recycled.

“Today, we say goodbye and good riddance to thousands of illegal guns that no longer threaten the safety of our neighborhoods, our families, or our children by sending over 3,500 illegal guns off to their final destination: into a gun chipper to be turned into scrap metal and eventually recycled,” Adams said at a press conference. 

“The NYPD recovered 17 ghost guns in 2018, 48 in 2019, 150 in 2020, 263 in 2021, 585 in 2022, 394 in 2023, 438 in 2024, and already 71 so far year-to-date,” officials said said. (FOX NEWS DIGITAL)

In March 2022, the NYPD launched its Neighborhood Safety Teams to focus on gun violence prevention in areas that account for a disproportionate number of citywide shootings.

“From day one, this administration has mounted an all out effort to reduce gun violence,” Adams said. “From our gun violence prevention task force to our neighborhood safety teams, I’ve testified before Congress about gun violence, urged the Supreme Court to uphold gun safety laws, worked with leaders and mayors across the nation, and sued the makers and marketers of ghost guns.”