City that never sleeps… or shoots? NYC enjoys first shooting-free weekend in decades

The New York City Police Dept. has taken a victory lap after the Big Apple went the entire weekend without a shooting – a streak that hasn’t been seen since at least 1993. Murders are up eight percent from last year, however.

From Thursday morning to Monday afternoon, New York City’s 8.5 million inhabitants kept their fingers off their triggers, resulting in nearly 100 hours of relative serenity throughout the five boroughs.

The rare lull in shooting incidents can be attributed to the hard work of the NYPD and the public at large, NYPD Chief of Patrol Rodney Harrison tweeted on Monday.

“This past weekend #NYC had no shootings, a milestone we haven’t reached in over a decade. My thanks to every member of the #NYPD for working hard to protect this city and to every member of the public who has helped us make this city so safe.”

Mayor Bill de Blasio adopted a similar line, crediting the NYD for the “extraordinary” safety streak while addressing the department’s graduation ceremony on Monday. The city’s police department has “the best strategy, the best training,” de Blasio boasted, adding that the force “never rests on its laurels” and “always seeks to get better.” 

But there’s certainly room for improvement. Gun violence across the city has seen a 2.5-percent drop from last year, but murders are still up eight percent. 

And despite de Blasio’s crowing, the NYPD’s superior tactics apparently had little effect on the shooting-heavy weekend of October 6-7, which city authorities called “terrible.”

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But the gunplay-free weekend stands out among the otherwise grim gun-related statistics in the United States. There are nearly 70 million more guns than people in the US, and mass shooting incidents are on the rise nationwide.

In 2017, the US saw a total of 346 mass shootings – usually defined as the killing of three or more people in a public place. A total of 273 such incidents have already been registered this year.

A deadly school shooting in Parkland, Florida in February ignited fierce debate about gun control and limits to the 2nd Amendment. The February 14 shooting at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland was one of the deadliest incidents of the kind in US history, with 17 people killed and 20 injured.

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