Suffolk County authorities say they have seized more than 300 guns and a cache of ammunition from a house near Centereach High School where the homeowner allegedly ran an illegal gun-smithing business.
Jay Steiner was arrested in January and charged with criminal possession of a weapon for illegal possession of more than 10 operable firearms. Prosecutors announced the case Thursday after they said crime lab investigators completed testing this week on many of the more than seven dozen illegal handguns found in his house.
“Most of the guns recovered from this defendant’s home were not under lock and key,” Suffolk County District Attorney Thomas Spota said. “We found them scattered among various rooms in the house and in an unlocked attic.”
When the district attorney’s Gun Suppression Team executed a search warrant, they found five loaded handguns in an unlocked dresser drawer in the bedroom, a loaded shotgun hanging on the wall, a revolver under a hat in the kitchen, seven handguns in a briefcase and 67 handguns in two basement safes, Spota added.
Investigators also found in the basement two devices called “drop-in auto sears,” a small piece of metal used to convert an AR-15 rifle into a fully automatic machine gun, he said.
Steiner is currently free on bail. He is due back in court April 29.
