Mayor Eric Adams and Gov. Kathy Hochul have tried almost everything to tamp down on violent crime in New York City's subway system, from calling out the National Guard to installing more cameras in subway stations and cars. Yet despite those efforts, the number of victims of violent crime in the transit system continues to rise, along with the number of violent offenders who are ignoring the city's edict that the subway is a "gun-free zone." 

The latest incident took place just a few weeks ago, when authorities say 34-year-old Steven Sylvester shot at Good Samaritan who tried to intervene and de-escalate a fight between Sylvester and his girlfriend. 

But Sylvester, who carried a loaded firearm onto the train, missed the good Samaritan.

The bullet instead bounced off the train door and hit the hand of another man, a 32-year-old innocent bystander, who had happened to enter the car at that time, prosecutors said.

The bystander suffered a gunshot wound to the left hand and graze wounds to the torso, court papers say. 

Sylvester fled the scene and was arrested by officers on June 6 in the 19th Precinct.

Bail was initially set at $100,000, but during a court hearing on Monday a judge raised Sylvester's bail to a cool $1 million dollar cash or $2 million bond. 

Besides attempted murder, Sylvester faces a number of other charges, including illegally possessing the gun he brought onto the train. District Attorney Alvin Bragg had some tough talk for Sylvester and other offenders after the hearing, telling the New York Post his office will "continue holding people accountable who misuse our transit system as a hub for dangerous weapons and violence." 

That's all well and good, but it doesn't change the fact that New York City's "gun-free zones" are hardly gun-free. It's the law-abiding who've been disarmed by New York's policies, not violent offenders. Even if you're lucky enough to obtain a concealed carry license in New York City (and despite the Bruen decision, it does seem like there's still luck involved), you're prohibited from bearing arms on public transit. Meanwhile, shootings and stabbings are taking place with an alarming regularity.

The man who was stabbed to death by his neighbor in a Manhattan subway station last week is being remembered as a music lover who had endless love and talent to share.

Tributes poured in over the weekend for Johnny Medina at his Washington Heights home, blocks away from the West 175th Street subway station where he was stabbed multiple times. Authorities say the 40-year-old got in an argument with his alleged attacker, 24-year-old Diego Figueroa-Hepner, before the violence began.

According to Medina's family members and police sources, Medina had recently filed a harassment report against Figueroa-Hepner who lived right across the street from him.

"This person was drawn to Johnny...engaged with him and over months built this obsession with him and posting these conspiracies online and cyberbullying him to the point that Johnny felt like he had to make a report," one of Medina's cousins, Anthony Reyes, said.

I don't know about you, but if I had a neighbor who was stalking me to the point that I had to go to the police, I'd definitely want to carry a firearm with me in case he became violent. We don't know if Medina even considered taking that step, but if he had he would have been waiting for months on end for the NYPD to approve his application, and even he'd been approved he would have been unable to lawfully carry anytime he needed to use public transit.

New York's post-Bruen "gun-free zones" have been in place for about two years now, and the experiment has clearly proven to be a failure. But no matter how dangerous the subway system has become, there's one step that Adams and Hochul will never take: allowing New Yorkers to protect and defend themselves with a legally carried firearm.