NYC forum: Gunshot injuries on Long Island fell in '22 by nearly 30%

Shootings with injuries fell nearly 30% across Long Island last year, according to state and federal data cited by lawmakers and advocates Tuesday at a gun-prevention forum in Manhattan.

Despite the dip in shootings, gun control advocates at the forum called for tighter firearms controls and additional funding and education to ensure weapons don't fall into the hands of dangerous and unstable individuals.

New Hyde Park-based Northwell Health sponsored the fourth annual event that also included speeches by Gov. Kathy Hochul, U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy and other law enforcement and medical officials as well as elected leaders.

Fewer shootings

On Long Island last year, the Nassau, Suffolk and Hempstead police departments — who together participate in the statewide Gun Involved Violence Elimination initiative — reported 96 shooting incidents with injuries, according to state data. Those numbers are a 29% drop from 2021 when the three agencies reported 136 shooting incidents involving injuries, the data shows. 

Statewide, the 20 police departments participating in the initiative reported 50 shootings with injuries in January 2023 — the fewest since March 2020 — while New York City reported 73 such incidents, its fewest since May 2020. These numbers come amid intense scrutiny of recent bail reform laws that some lawmakers contend have caused violent crime to spike.

For all of 2022, major felonies in the city, which include burglaries, robberies, grand larcenies and homicides, increased by 22.4% compared with 2021, according to NYPD data released in January. Meanwhile, homicides alone fell by 11.3% and shootings dropped 17.2%, the data shows.

On Long Island, major crimes increased 41% in Nassau and 15% in Suffolk last year compared to 2021 — spikes top law-enforcement officials said in January were fueled by a dramatic increase in property crimes.

Hochul told those gathered at the forum that the state is fighting gun violence through strict enforcement of existing laws; red flag laws that prevent individuals who show signs of being a threat to themselves or others from possessing firearms and through the confiscation of illegal and unregistered ghost guns.

"We don't have to be in this state of affairs," Hochul said of mass shootings, both in New York and nationwide. "We do not have to be here. This is not a health crisis that has to continue at this caliber right now. It can be eradicated. But it takes will. It takes courage. It takes the ability to stand up against loud voices and loud organizations across this country."

The forum also included speeches or interviews with Steven Dettelbach, director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; Dr. Victor Dzau, president of the National Academy of Medicine; U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy, a Democrat from Connecticut and a leading gun control proponent, and Jazmin and Gloria Cazares, the sister and mother, respectively, of nine-year-old Jackie Cazares, who was killed in the Uvalde, Texas elementary school massacre last May.

A leading cause of death

Gun control advocates noted that, despite the progress locally in reducing shootings, guns remain the leading cause of death nationwide among children and adolescents.

Northwell trauma surgeon Chethan Sathya said there was a 350% spike in children coming into Cohen Children’s Medical Center in New Hyde Park last year with gunshot injuries.

"This year alone we've seen kids riddled with bullet wounds from gang violence," said Sathya, who doubles as director at Northwell's Center for Gun Violence Prevention. "We just saw a child shot in the back of the head by his brother. We saw another girl paralyzed after being shot in the neck … We on the front lines all know the devastating effects that bullets have, particularly among children."

In 2020, 4,357 children were killed by firearms in the U.S. compared to five in Canada, eight in France, 11 in Germany and 15 in the United Kingdom, Vivek Murphy said.

"If that doesn't tell us what we need to know — that we are an outlier and not in a good way — than nothing else will," he said. "But it's an urgent call for us to act and to take this seriously."