❓WHAT HAPPENED: New York City has seen a sharp rise in teenage shooting victims and gun offenders since the state’s “Raise the Age” law went into effect, according to new New York City Police Department (NYPD) data.
👤WHO WAS INVOLVED: Teen shooters, victims, and law enforcement officials, including former NYPD supervisor Chris Hermann and former NYPD Assistant Commissioner Kevin O’Connor.
📍WHEN & WHERE: Data covers incidents through September 2025 in New York City, with notable cases in Times Square and East Harlem.
💬KEY QUOTE: “We need to somehow tweak Raise the Age so when there’s shooters involved in incidents that they don’t just get a get out of jail free card.” – Chris Hermann
🎯IMPACT: Teen gun-related crimes have surged 143 percent since the law’s implementation, despite citywide shootings declining overall.
The State of New York‘s Raise the Age law—which raised the age of criminal culpability from 16 to 18—has precipitated a 96 percent increase in teen shooting victims and an alarming number of other and gun offenses in New York City compared to 2018, law enforcement data shows. According to the New York City Police Department (NYPD), 92 minors have been shot so far in 2025 through September, a 21 percent increase from the same period last year.
Enacted in two phases between 2018 and 2019, the New York court system contends the law is justified because, “Scientific research has shown that prosecuting and placing children in the adult criminal justice system does not work.” Notably, the NYPD crime data shows that in 2025, the number of arrests of teen shooters have also surged, with 73 teenagers arrested this year compared to 30 in the same timeframe in 2018, marking a 143 percent increase. This spike in teenage gun crime comes even as citywide shootings have dropped 20 percent compared to 2024 and over 50 percent since 2020.
Critics of the law contend it fails to hold criminals under the age of 18 accountable, resulting in the spike in teenage gun violence. “We need to somehow tweak Raise the Age so when there’s shooters involved in incidents that they don’t just get a get out of jail free card,” said former NYPD supervisor Chris Hermann in a recent inteview. He added: “We want to see them get remanded longer term for gun-related crimes. But no politician is going to say ‘Hey, maybe it’s time [to] build a bigger, better juvenile jail.’”
Meanwhile, former NYPD Assistant Commissioner Kevin O’Connor poins to a number of high-profile incidents as emblematic the state’s failure to address the issue, including an August shooting in Times Square where a 17-year-old wounded three people and a September case where a 44-year-old woman was struck by stray gunfire allegedly fired by a teen. Another notable case involved 18-year-old Damien Calhoun, who was involved in a gunfight in East Harlem while wearing an ankle monitor for an attempted murder charge from the previous year.
“This case in East Harlem is another poster child of what’s going on,” O’Connor said before adding: “You got an 18-year-old wearing an ankle monitor who pleaded guilty to an attempted murder shooting and he’s out. If he pled guilty, why is he out? It’s because of Raise the Age.” O’Connor described the situation as “a complete revolving door.”
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