Illegal guns recovered in Rochester increasingly are traced to New York dealers at a rising rate, a new report from Brady shows. But the majority are still coming from out of state.
It’s the second such report developed by the Washington, D.C.-based non-profit analyzing Rochester’s crime guns. Similar to the first report in 2023, it showed that the vast majority of guns recovered can be traced back to a small number of dealers.
However, the number of guns that originated locally has grown. In 2022, the number of guns tracked to New York dealers stood at 23%. In the first three-quarters of 2025, that number had risen to 33%. Of 1,947 traceable guns between 2022 and 2025, 649 were traced to New York gun shops. The majority of those guns came from Monroe County.
About 20% of all recovered guns were untraceable.
“I still find it troubling that some of our own neighbors, business owners from the suburbs of Rochester, are supplying a significant number of illegal guns that end up in our city and used in a crime,” Mayor Malik Evans said during a news conference Wednesday. “The reports’ researchers could not determine what is driving this increase of in-state crime guns, but they note that policies at the state and local level to hold gun dealers more accountable would likely have a positive impact in Rochester.”
Most of the out-of-state guns came from states with relatively lax gun laws when compared with New York. The top states included Georgia, Ohio, Florida, North Carolina and Alabama, none of which require any special permit to buy a handgun.
“This matters,” said Willie Lightfoot, a former City Councilmember and founder of the ROC Against Gun Violence Coalition. “Why? Because data matters. It tells us the truth about how illegal guns are entering our community, and it gives us the tools to stop that flow. And this work will not stay local.”
While shootings have dropped significantly in recent years, the number of guns collected annually has remained relatively stable, the report showed, at more than 600 per year.
In the first six months of 2026, 43 people have been shot in Rochester, one fatally.
Evans said he will continue the city’s Gun Violence State of Emergency. That designation gives the mayor special powers to address gun violence hot spots, including shuttering businesses.
“There are still too many illegal guns on our streets,” Evans said, adding: “If this was happening in any other small town or suburb, they would see it as an emergency. It's up to us to see it as an emergency here in our city.”
