Breaking the Firearms Pipeline: The Queens County District Attorney’s Office is a National Leader in the Fight Against Guns
In 2021, District Attorney Katz created the Queens County District Attorney’s Office’s first Crime Strategies & Intelligence Bureau (CSIB), tasked with instituting a proactive intelligence-based approach to crime prevention. Since then, the Office’s model of identifying, investigating, and prosecuting the manufacturers and distributors of weapons has become a national standard for the fight against guns.
- By:
- The Queens County District Attorney's Office
Table of Contents
Gun Prosecutions in Queens
The Queens District Attorney’s office continues its commitment to the Gun Violence Strategies Partnership (GVSP), a law enforcement partnership formed to tackle the surge in gun violence in our city. Each day, members of DA Katz’s Crime Strategies and Intelligence Bureau (CSIB) join over 25 city, state and federal agencies to discuss recently arrested defendants accused of gun violence and gun possession. The DA’s office and its law enforcement partners focus on repeat offenders and drivers of gun violence in an effort to continue to get guns off our streets and further reduce the number of shootings. GVSP operates by gathering intelligence from across agencies to strengthen cases and present the strongest arguments to hold violent criminals accountable. CSIB then analyzes this intelligence and shares it with the prosecutors and investigators to enhance each prosecution. More than half of the subjects who were identified by GVSP had prior felony convictions, and many remained in custody after arraignment.
Since DA Katz took office in 2020, the Queens County District Attorney’s Office has prosecuted over 4,000 gun-related cases. The map below depicts gun prosecutions by anonymized arrest location, as of December 31, 2025. Prosecutions are defined as cases involving a gun possession charge or where guns were recovered. In addition, the dashboard illustrates the 12 locations where Gun Buy Back events have been held in Queens since 2020, resulting in the recovery of 741 firearms. The office has also created an interactive dashboard to better understand gun prosecutions across Queens.
Ghost Gun Recoveries in NYC
With a goal of identifying and interrupting crime trends before the emergence of a public safety crisis, District Attorney Katz directed CSIB to tackle the use of unserialized and untraceable personally manufactured firearms – also known as “ghost guns” – which were just beginning to come on the radar of local law enforcement in 2020. Since 2021, Queens County has accounted for 38% of all ghost guns recovered citywide, more than any other borough. Consequently, the Office has emerged as a national subject matter expert in personally manufactured firearms, providing training to law enforcement agencies across the country, and filing anAmicus Curiae Brief with the Supreme Court of the United States in support of Federal Regulations to stem the flow of untraceable ghost guns.
Queens County DA: Proactive Ghost Gun Investigations
CSIB’s successful investigation and prosecution of numerous ghost gun manufacturers and traffickers has contributed to Queens County leading New York City in the total number of ghost gun recoveries. In under four years, the Queens DA's Office’s strategy has led to the investigation and prosecution of more than 50 individuals for manufacturing, possessing and/or distributing personally manufactured firearms. As noted below, not only have these investigations led to the recovery of hundreds of ghost guns, but they have also led to the recovery of hundreds of commercially manufactured firearms as well.
Along with the hundreds of firearms that we removed from the streets, our proactive and ground-breaking ghost gun investigations have also resulted in the recovery of hundreds of firearm accessories, all of which are sophisticated and often homemade items that allow these dangerous ghost guns to be modified into even deadlier and more accurate firearms. Additionally, 1,195 large capacity ammunition feeding devices and approximately 141,750 rounds of ammunition were recovered.
Op-Eds and Podcasts
Emerging as a national leader in the fight against ghost guns, District Attorney Katz has penned several Op-Eds on this topic, and appeared in a technology podcast hosted by NYU Professor Marc Beckman.