On October 25th, a cleaning worker at the Cortlandt Street subway station in Lower Manhattan discovered an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle inside a trash can. This alarming find was reported by the New York City police on October 26th, raising concerns despite the fact that no injuries occurred and the magazine was empty.
According to police reports, the cleaning worker found the rifle around 3:15 PM while cleaning a section of the platform that serves the R line. Notably, the station is just two stops away from the National September 11 Memorial & Museum. Officials noted that the rifle was manufactured by Anderson, a weapon often associated with mass shooting incidents. Fortunately, the magazine was found devoid of ammunition.
This incident came just days after Mayor Eric Adams delivered an update on the city’s pilot program for gun detection scanners. On October 23rd, Adams and city officials announced that the scanners, developed by the Massachusetts-based startup Evolv Technology, had been operational in New York City for over a month. During this period, the scanners detected commuters carrying 12 knives but did not report any firearms.
However, the reliability of this data is questionable, as participation in scanning is voluntary. This means that passengers can opt out or enter through different entrances, allowing individuals carrying weapons to bypass the detection system, which compromises safety. Furthermore, the scanners had issued 118 false alerts, signaling the presence of weapons that turned out to be nonexistent, resulting in an average false alarm rate of 4.29% daily.
Since the program’s launch, Adams has described it as “impressive,” claiming it would aide the NYPD in identifying firearms and other dangerous weapons within the subway system. However, this assertion has been met with skepticism, as Adams and city officials have not clearly articulated the specific concerns they intend to address, the goals they hope to achieve, or how they define success from the data collected, leaving New Yorkers wary of the initiative.
