NRA be damned, cops to melt these seized guns

STANDING NEAR a mountain of nearly 2,500 guns seized by cops, NYPD Commissioner James O’Neill vowed to destroy them — preventing the weapons from ever returning to the streets of New York.

O’Neill on Wednesday announced the fate of the 2,421 firearms, a nearly 5-foot pile of guns that included a World War I-era British machine gun.

The city’s top cop said the NYPD never considered selling the guns — a suggestion offered by the National Rifle Association.

“Some police departments around the nation sell their seized guns to gun buyers in order to make money,” O’Neill said. “We never do that.

“These guns will never again be used to hurt somebody or threaten the quality of life of the good people of this city,” he added.

The NYPD destroys seized firearms about twice a year, officials said. The guns are taken to an undisclosed location to be melted down or stamped into oblivion. The scrap metal is then recycled for other uses.

“This is the last you’ll see of these guns,” O’Neill said.

The NRA questioned the wisdom of destroying the guns.

“The destruction of such valuable tools is shortsighted at best,” the gun group said in a statement. “Firearms

Of the handguns, were used in felonies, in misdemeanors

weapons came through the gun amnesty program are just like any other confiscated asset and should be sold at auction to licensed dealers or law-abiding citizens.”

The NRA has lobbied some states successfully to pass laws that require police agencies to sell guns that have been seized.

“Why on Earth would we do that?” O’Neill asked. “We went through a lot of hard work to get these guns off the street.” guns were seized through the field intelligence program in 2015 were seized through program in 2014

Police credited the NYPD’s field intelligence officers with taking more than 1,000 guns off the street through the end of September — eclipsing the tally for each of the previous two years, according to NYPD Chief of Patrol Carlos Gomez. By comparison, 998 guns were seized through the field intel program in all of 2015, and 817 in 2014.

O’Neill said of the guns to be destroyed, 1,995 are handguns and 426 are rifles. Counting just the handguns, 1,158 were used in felonies, 12 in misdemeanors. Another 485 came in through the gun amnesty program, O’Neill said.

The NYPD announcement comes a day after state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman released a report revealing that 74% of all guns used in city crimes come from out of state. The findings show the majority of the guns come from the six states comprising the socalled Iron Pipeline — Pennsylvania, Virginia, North and South Carolina, Georgia and Florida.