NYPD’s mountain of seized guns

This mountain of nearly 2,000 guns was amassed by the NYPD during a collection of street stops, gang takedowns, search warrants and other forms of old-fashioned police work.

The heaving pile of pistols, rifles and shotguns that cops showed off Wednesday at One Police Plaza represents just a fraction of the approximately 15,500 firearms seized or confiscated since 2013.

“To my left is obviously a lot of guns,” Police Commissioner James O’Neill said at a press conference. “The men and woman of the NYPD work extremely hard every day at great risk to themselves to take illegal guns off the streets of New York City. When we destroy these guns about twice a year, we take them out of circulation forever. This is the end of the iron pipeline.”

Of the 1,995 guns displayed by police brass, more than half were taken in connection with felonies like armed robbery and shootings.

Another 223 came from gang takedowns, street and vehicle stops and search warrants.

“We do it in various ways,” said Chief of Department Carlos Gomez. “We do it when we take down those gangs and those crews. We do it through technology . . . And we do it through the hard work of our officers every day.”

Some of the guns were found using ShotSpotter technology, which detects and triangulates gunfire to zero in on a location. Most of the weapons were from Brooklyn and The Bronx. “Each firearm to me represents a potential victim,” said Gomez.

A high ranking police source told The Post the gun stack shows that cops were “still doing their jobs” — despite restrictions on stop and frisk from a judge’s 2013 ruling.

While some law-enforcement agencies across the country sell most of their seized or confiscated firearms to the highest bidder among licensed firearm dealers, the NYPD plans to take the guns to an undisclosed location out of state to melt them down and recycle them.

“The metal is recycled. The long guns are stamped into basically dust,” Gomez said.

A vintage Lewis machine gun was in the pile, but officials said they were considering handing over the antique — taken during a search in Queens — to a museum.

The National Rifle Association felt the need to chime in, blasting the department for destroying the weapons rather than selling them at auction.

“Failing to sell these valuable tools to licensed dealers or lawabiding citizens denies the police department of funds that could be used to pay for training, equipment, or ammunition,” the gun lobby group said in a statement.

O’Neill ripped the idea — saying, “Why on earth would we do that? We went through a lot of hard work to get these off the street.”