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MAP: NYPD Seized 2,510 Guns During Arrests in 2014

By  Aidan Gardiner and Nigel Chiwaya | July 21, 2015 7:30am | Updated on July 21, 2015 10:33pm

NEW YORK CITY — The NYPD seized more than 2,500 guns across the city last year, most of them from central Brooklyn, according to police data. 

Police in East New York's 75th Precinct recovered the most weapons of any precinct in the city — netting 135 pistols, two rifles and eight shotguns, according to an NYPD report obtained by DNAinfo New York through a Freedom of Information Law request.

Officers in the 73rd Precinct followed closely behind, seizing 123 guns — 112 pistols, seven rifles and four shotguns in Brownsville and part of Bedford-Stuyvesant.

The seizures come during a period of relatively low levels of shootings and weapons possession in the city's history.

But smuggling operations perpetuate gun violence in the city, then-NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly said in 2013 after police busted a massive operation spanning from Brownsville to South Carolina.

"Simply put, fewer New Yorkers are being shot and fewer teens are walking around armed, but when guns do surface, the firearms originated out of state," Kelly wrote in a Daily News opinion piece.

Last year, the number of seizures in each precinct generally outpaced the number of people who were shot there, with high gun recovery rates in areas that had high numbers of shootings, data show.

In the 75th Precinct, which led the city in gun recoveries, 77 people were shot last year.

And in the precinct with the second-most seizures, the 73rd, 83 people were shot.

In East Flatbush's 67th Precinct, where 85 people were shot last year — more than anywhere else in the city — police seized 81 guns.

Police also pulled guns off the streets in areas where there have been no shootings in at least two years.

They seized 22 guns in Staten Island's 123rd Precinct, covering the southern end of Staten Island, six in Queens' 111th Precinct, spanning Bayside and Douglaston, and two in the Upper East Side's 19th Precinct.

More than 30 guns were seized in all but two Bronx precincts. The 47th Precinct was that borough's leader with 105 pistols and two rifles, data show. Fifty-eight people were shot there in that same time period.

Police did not provide details about the circumstances of the gun recoveries or the history of the weapons.

But anti-gun advocates said that the majority of the firearms recovered are likely illegal and from out of state. Florida, Virginia and North Carolina are the top three sources of out-of-state guns, according to federal data from 2013.

"We think across the country that half a million guns are stolen [each year]," said Leah Barrett of the group New Yorkers Against Gun Violence.

"Those go directly into the illegal market. You can be darn sure of that."

Barrett said weapons will continue to flow into New York neighborhoods until state and national legislators crack down on shoddy dealers and gun theft.

"The situation is not surprising," Barrett said. "It keeps happening and will until we get these laws and enforcement."