Did Hochul’s Initatives Really Reduce Violent Crime Rate?

With the drop in homicides throughout the nation, a drop that was historic in its magnitude, it’s unsurprising to see a bunch of people trying to claim their preferred policies played a role. I’m not immune to that, either, because as a pro-gun guy, I’d love to say definitively that the restoration of gun rights was the driving cause of the unprecedented drop.

The problem is that we simply can’t make a blanket statement about why it happened, in part because it wasn’t just one factor, and I’m honest enough to try and stop myself from using correlation and seeing causation.

But New York Gov. Kathy Hochul has no such compulsion, apparently.

Gov. Kathy Hochul announced sustained progress in the ongoing fight against gun violence during the first four months of 2026 compared to the same time last year in communities participating in the state’s Gun Involved Violence Elimination (GIVE) initiative. New data from the Division of Criminal Justice Services (DCJS) shows shooting incidents with injury dropped 17%, the number of shooting victims declined 19%, and the number of individuals killed by a firearm decreased 43%. At the same time, there were no firearm-related homicides in 18 of the 28 GIVE communities.

“New Yorkers are safer today because of our continued investments in proven, data-driven strategies that are helping reduce gun violence and save lives,” Hochul said. “Everyone deserves to live free from the scourge of gun violence. As we work to continue this progress across communities that experience gun violence, my administration will continue to support the hard work of law enforcement, community organizations and local leaders on the front lines of this fight.”

…

Compared to the first four months of 2021, the reductions are even more significant. Shooting incidents with injury declined 64%, from 324 to 116 incidents. Shooting victims decreased 66%, from 373 to 127; and firearm-related murders dropped 66%, from 61 to 21 deaths. These positive trends in GIVE communities follow last year’s all-time low numbers for all three shooting data points, which the state began collecting in 2006.

Division of Criminal Justice Services Commissioner Rossana Rosado said, “Under Gov. Hochul’s leadership, New York state has continued to make strategic investments that are helping reduce gun violence and save lives. Every decline in violence means more families kept whole, more children growing up in safer neighborhoods, and more communities able to thrive free from the fear and trauma caused by gun violence. These results reflect the commitment of law enforcement, community organizations and local leaders working together every day to build a safer New York for everyone.”

Now, considering what this GIVE Initiative actually is, it’s interesting that this is what she’s touting as the reason New York has seen a drop in homicides. It’s not gun control, after all, but something a lot of us have been talking about for ages: It’s a focus on the people who cause the problems in the first place.

First, this drop has been across the board in every state, so it’s kind of stupid to argue that something you, as an individual governor, did is the reason for the drop. It’s kind of arrogant, to be honest, and while I know every politician on the planet does the same thing regardless of party, it’s still dumb.

Especially as Hochul has continually pushed for gun control as the solution, while now touting a completely different program that doesn’t involve gun control at all as being responsible. Funny, ain’t it?

Again, though, it should be remembered that the GIVE Initiative is New York state-specific, though there are a few other similar programs in other anti-gun states, oddly enough.

It’s almost like they don’t really believe gun control is the answer to their violent crime issues.

Here’s what we know definitively about the drop in violent crimes, particularly homicides, over the past couple of years:

1. This happened after the Bruen decision was handed down, making “shall-issue” permitting the minimum acceptable standard for issuing concealed carry permits.

2. At that time, people like Gov. Hochul swore up and down that the decision would make us less safe, that people would be getting killed at an alarming rate, and that it was inevitable that we would regret the decision.

3. Since then, we’ve seen the opposite happen. Homicides are down across the nation, even in states that moved to a constitutional carry system.

In other words, while some of what the GIVE Initiative does probably hasn’t hurt with bringing the rate down, the truth is that the very thing we were told was essential to make that happen, namely gun control, not only failed to produce it, but an expansion of gun rights happened, and the exact opposite of what Hochul said would happen actually took place.

I can’t say definitively that the restoration of gun rights is why violent crime dropped, only because there’s no data one way or the other. I can definitively say that everything they claimed would happen didn’t, though, and that’s enough for me.

Editor’s Note: The radical Left will stop at nothing to enact their radical gun control agenda and strip us of our Second Amendment rights.

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