Police are finding fewer ghost guns than they did two years ago, though seizures of the untraceable firearms are up compared with the same period last year.

According to NYPD data, the department has seized a total of 199 ghost guns through Aug. 10 this year. The number is slightly higher than the same time period last year, when police had confiscated 168 ghost guns, but significantly lower than the same time period in 2024, when police had seized 304 ghost guns.

The homemade firearms, which can be 3D-printed or put together from parts sourced online, have become increasingly prevalent across the city over the last five years. In 2020, police recovered 10 ghost guns; in 2025, they confiscated a total of 293, according to NYPD data.

A spokesperson for the NYPD attributed the broader decline in ghost gun recoveries to enforcement efforts, civil litigation against retailers and manufacturers and laws passed in 2022 and 2025 restricting shipments of ghost guns into New York City. The spokesperson said police are still seeing an increase in 3D-printed ghost guns.

This year’s ghost gun haul makes up about 6% of the more than 3,200 guns that police have seized from all five boroughs so far this year — a small fraction, but still concerning to law enforcement officials who have tried to crack down on manufacturers.

Last year, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg sent a letter to a Chinese 3D printer manufacturer asking the company to install software in its products that would block the ability to print common gun parts. In January of this year, Gov. Kathy Hochul introduced legislation that would require all 3D printers sold in New York state to include that software and would impose harsher consequences for people who distributed digital gun-making instructions.

The data comes as city officials continue to tout record-low shootings so far this year — a trend that has continued even into the summer months, when gun violence tends to spike as more people spend time gathering outdoors. For the month of July, shooting incidents decreased more than 21% citywide and were down in every borough, according to the NYPD.

Gun violence remains down more than 6% so far this year, with 30 fewer victims compared with last year at this time.

While gun seizures make up one prong of the NYPD’s work to prevent shootings across the city, law enforcement officials gathered Tuesday to highlight the work of the Gun Violence Strategies Partnership — a collaboration that brings together more than 30 federal, state and local law enforcement agencies in a daily meeting to discuss ongoing gun violence issues in the five boroughs.

The initiative was established in 2021 as part of a federal grant from the Office of National Drug Control Policy to focus on areas of high drug trafficking. It is spearheaded by Chauncey Parker, who currently serves as the executive director of the New York/New Jersey High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area and previously served as deputy mayor for public safety under previous Mayor Eric Adams.

The group has met for 1,200 consecutive days, Tisch said, and has helped the department identify about 4,100 people with repeat arrests for gun violence felonies.

“The NYPD created this initiative because no single agency can solve gun violence alone,” she said. “A lead developed by a patrol cop can expose a larger trafficking operation. Evidence from one shooting can connect a suspect to violence in another borough. Information shared with a prosecutor can help turn an arrest into a case that keeps a violent criminal off the street.”

Parker explained how detectives compile information each morning about people arrested in the previous 24 hours for a gun-related felony — whether that’s a shooting, a gun robbery or illegal weapons possession. They then collaborate with prosecutors as those individuals’ cases proceed through court.

“On average, it's about three people a day,” Parker said. “Out of a city of over 8 million people, the commissioner's initiative is laser-focused on the people who are hurting people most severely in New York City.”

This story has been updated with comment from a spokesperson for the NYPD.