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 firearms on the table in front of him.

“That father and son-in-law, 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. I don’t hear any good stories about men and women who are protecting us from the bad people. No one is talking about that,” Adams said of the rank and file cops.

Adams also slammed the “extreme left” for failing to have the backs of officers and promoting the Defund the Police movement. He didn’t mention defund proponents like socialist Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez by name but in the past, he’s blamed the city’s soft-on-crime stance in part on his predecessor, left-leaning ex-Mayor Bill de Blasio.

“We’ve had this battle before, but you know, we won it before because everyone was with us – we was operating as a team, we weren’t solo.”

Adams, NYPD Commissioner Keechant Sewell and the Everytown for Gun Safety Action Fund, an anti-gun violence nonprofit, also sent a letter 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.

Sewell said Gotham’s ability to temper gun violence is being thwarted by the growing proliferation of those DIY ghost guns on the Big Apple’s streets.

“The NYPD [saw] the first ghost gun back in 2018 and in that year, the total number recovered was 17. In 2019, it was 50. By 2020, the the number was 150. And then in 2021 it was up to 275. And in just the first four months of 2022, our officers have already recovered 153 ghost guns, which represents a 314 percent increase from the same period a year ago,” said Sewell.

“The problem is obvious and the dangers to people of New York City are here. In response, the NYPD has stepped up our efforts to seize, investigate and build cases concerning these weapons.”

When asked by The Post to provide a number on how many of the city’s shootings are linked to ghost guns, officials could not provide an answer.

“Yes, we must seize those guns but we must also hold the people accountable for purchasing and using them to harm the citizens of our city. And right now, because these guns are sold mainly online, the websites selling them can easily circumvent any regulation,” Sewell said. 

The announcement came on the heels of yet another bloody night, after NYPD Officer Dennis Vargas, of the Bronx Borough public safety team, was shot in the arm late Tuesday night by a recidivist offender. 

Around 10:45 p.m., Vargas, 32, and his partner gave chase to suspect Rameek Smith, 25, who began shooting at the officers – striking Vargas.

The cops returned fire and shot Smith in the head. He later died at St. Barnabas Hospital. 

“The number of shootings that we are responding to every night is despicable,” Adams said at an early Wednesday press briefing from Lincoln Hospital, where Vargas was taken after the shooting and released hours later.

“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.

Smith also had a criminal history. He was arrested in March 2020 at a Coney Island subway station, allegedly in possession of a gun after being stopped for fare evasion and charged with criminal possession of a weapon, The Post previously reported. In 2016 he was convicted of robbery and given five years probation. 

But in Dec. 2021, he pleaded guilty in the gun case and was released until his sentencing, which has been delayed. He was due back in court in June.

“Then last night, while our brave police officers came upon this career criminal on the street and he used another illegal gun to shoot one of the officers,” Sewell said Tuesday.

“We can’t stand for these types of dangerous and highly avoidable confrontations with repeat offenders who are given every leeway by the criminal justice system. We need to right these wrongs.”

Adams campaigned on cleaning up the city’s violence and upon assuming office, reestablished the NYPD’s plainclothes anti-gun unit, albeit with clearly marked jackets.

He recently unveiled the department’s summer violence reduction plan, with a roadmap to deploy more cops on night patrol.

NYPD data released last week revealed that Big Apple gun violence dropped last month compared to April 2021 — but the number of shootings was still nearly double pre-COVID-19 pandemic levels, and major crimes were up 34.2% overall.

The mayor also said he talks to Sewell every morning and every Sunday to get updates on the NYPD’s progress.