The New York City Police Department (NYPD) posted a video to X on Monday showing them incinerating guns they confiscated during stings and criminal investigations.
The text on the post says, “What happens to the thousands of illegal guns that the NYPD takes off our streets? They are melted down, never to cause harm again.”
Video shows a variety of guns secured via zip ties and thrown into stacks that are then placed into an inferno and melted down. Audio captures of the sound of the blazing fire melting the firearms.
Molten metal is then seen being poured out of one crucible into another, signaling that the guns are gone forever.
As of 2009, CNNMoney noted that 11 states barred the destruction of confiscated guns.
In some states, such as Arizona, the law requires police to sell confiscated firearms to licensed gun dealers, who then make the firearms available for sale to the public.
RELATED: Canada Floats Door-to-Door Gun Confiscation — A Reminder Why Americans Cherish the Second Amendment
On December 17, 2025, 12 News reported, “Under current Arizona law, all weapons confiscated by police after adjudication by a court must be sold.”
AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio and the director of global marketing for Lone Star Hunts. He holds a PhD in Military History with a focus on the Vietnam War (brown water navy), U.S. Navy since Inception, the Civil War, and Early Modern Europe. He enjoys reading Philosophy and novels by Jack Carr and Nelson DeMille. He is a lever action man in an AR-15 world. Follow him on X: @awrhawkins. You can sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.
