Eric: Help rid ghosts, feds

In an impassioned defense of the NYPD, Mayor Adams called for more help from the federal government, and New Yorkers themselves, to help crack down on what he called the city’s latest crime scourge — ghost guns.

“I feel like I’m in an alternate reality. We’re probably the only civilized country that sends their troops into battle and we criticize them every day. That’s what we do,” a frustrated Adams told reporters Wednesday at the NYPD’s headquarters in lower Manhattan, referring to 131 “ghost” firearms on the table in front of him.

“That father and son-inlaw, future son-in-law, in spite of all that we say about them, they go out there again with the uncertainty of coming home. And all we do is criticize them. That’s all we do,” Adams said.

Adams also railed against gun violence at an early Wednesday press conference from Lincoln Hospital, where NYPD Officer Dennis Vargas was recovering after getting shot in The Bronx, allegedly by a career criminal.

“We took 2,600 guns off our streets. The shooters of those guns are back on the streets just like this person is,” the mayor fumed, referring to 25-year-old suspect Rameek Smith.

“Under normal circumstances you would see a decrease in crime in the city, but the same criminals are continuing to come out in our streets committing violence over and over again. The city deserves better,” Adams said.

Adams, NYPD Commissioner Keechant Sewell and the Everytown for Gun Safety Action Fund sent a letter Wednesday to the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to yank the firearms license of Nevada-based company, Polymer80 — the nation’s largest supplier of untraceable gun parts, according to ATF records.