ALBANY, N.Y. (NEWS10)–Governor Hochul said significant progress is being made when it comes to preventing gun violence here in New York State.

“Shootings are down 28% in the 20 jurisdictions we have given extra resources because they’ve been identified as high violence communities. Fatal shootings are down 43% murders down 35%,” said Hochul.

Those 20 police jurisdictions that participate in the Gun Involved Violence Elimination Initiative known as GIVE include: Albany, Binghamton, Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse, and Utica.

The Governor specifically praised Buffalo for the city’s decrease in gun violence.

“As we know, gun violence is actually quite concentrated,” explained Sheffali Welch, a volunteer with Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America. “It’s very important that you have credible messengers in the community, and programs within the community in order to really address those causes of gun violence to bring those rates down which we are seeing in New York.”

According to state data, New York State Police seized 735 guns in the first 6 months of 2023— a 6% increase from this time last year.

However, statewide gun seizures have decreased by about 813 guns when compared to numbers from 2022.

In this year’s budget, $347 million dollars went toward gun violence prevention programs.

In a statement, the New York State Division of Criminal Justice services said, “ This year’s funding $36 million, the most in GIVE’s history— provides local law enforcement agencies the resources they need to implement evidence-based strategies…”

“Our gun-involved violence elimination, initiative program, GIVE programs, that’s for our upstate communities,” said Hochul. “That’s where we really focused a tremendous amount of money and our police stabilization units where communities under stress, they call us up we show up. Our state police are literally on the streets in places like Rochester and Syracuse helping them out and have been and we’re committed to that.”