Famous Firearms Of The Apple

By ALISON GENDAR
DAILY NEWS POLICE BUREAU CHIEF

Gun wielded by 'Son of Sam' killer David Berkowitz (inset) is on display in Queens.

Behind the locked doors of a nondescript Queens building lie some infamous pieces of the city's bloody history.

In its collection of some 720 guns, the NYPD Forensic Investigations Division holds some of the most notorious weapons ever fired within city limits.

There's the .38 Special Charter Arms that killed John Lennon and the .44 Charter Arms Bulldog used by "Son of Sam" killer David Berkowitz.

"These and other guns are unique, and we use them as reference to help identify other weapons," said Detective Sean Hart.

The collection runs from the odd - a World War II German submachine gun found at a Brooklyn construction site - to the ill-famed - the bazooka used by anti-Castro Cubans in their failed assault on the United Nations in 1964.

The lab also collects the mundane - the inexpensive High Point handguns, .38 specials, Glocks, and AK-47s that show up all too often in city crimes."

Let's hope that the NYPD forensic boys have a greater attention to detail (unlikely) than the writers of this story who found it difficult to spell Hi-Point correctly. I've seen this collection, but wouldn't wish to go there again because these people treat firearms like anthrax spores.