More people are packing heat in the city’s subways.
Cops confiscated a whopping 148% more guns underground last year than in 2021, as officers have flooded the transit system to drive down crime, according to NYPD data.
Police took 77 guns away from criminals in 2025, compared to just 31 in 2021, according to the data provided to The Post.
Along with more gun hauls, the NYPD said gun violence citywide fell to historic lows last year — including drops in weapons-related crimes in the transit system.
Police have been omnipresent in stations and on subway platforms, helping to facilitate the jump in weapons seizures, experts said.
“I think you can attribute the collars to subway riders reporting suspicious activity to police officers who have been visibly present,” said Michael Alcazar, a former NYPD officer and a adjunct professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice.
But that’s not the only likely reason, he mused.
“Additionally, bad guys are stupid, police count on that,” the former sleuth said. “They’ve been emboldened by the revolving criminal justice system and perhaps feel comfortable carrying weapons with no fear of punishment.”
Perps with guns also attract attention to themselves by turnstile jumping and being disorderly, he said.
Arrests are also likely up because of there’s a new boss in town, Alcazar said.
“With the new incoming mayor, I’m sure [Police Commissioner Jessica] Tisch has tasked her chiefs to crack the whip,” he said of socialist Mayor Mamdani.
“Bosses always become motivated by a new incoming administration. A desire to be promoted or fear of being demoted.”
Joseph Giacalone, a former NYPD sergeant who’s also an adjunct professor at John Jay, wondered what the outcome of the gun arrests were and whether more people were packing heat because they know there aren’t serious repercussions.
“How many of them were tried and convicted and how many pleaded out to just a slap on the wrist?” he asked. “How many of them got community supervision?”
“If you have so many people carrying guns despite all the cops, they don’t fear the law at all,” he added.
He also wondered how long Mayor Mamdani would allow the turnstile arrests to continue, given that liberals have argued such enforcement targets the poor.
“You want to prevent crime in the subway, you have to do it at the turnstile,” Giacalone said. “Like everything else, we’ll see how the new mayor handles this.”
But 2025 was the “safest year ever for gun violence” in the city, with a significant drop in shooting incidents and victims within the transit system, according to the NYPD. Crime overall dropped 4% underground, according to NYPD officials.
“These results don’t just make the transit system safer — they make it feel safer,” Tisch said in a statement earlier this month.
In one recent gun crime, a 35-year-old man was emerging from the B/D subway at Grand Street and Christie Street around 11 p.m. on Jan. 9 when a stranger came from behind, pulled a gun, and demanded his property, according to police.
