A 83rd Precinct cruiser in Bushwick. This 9mm bullet can be used in a Tec-9 gun, like that seized by officers in a recent raid. –Photos by Jonathan Mena
Earlier this month a tip from a confidential informant led to a police raid on a Bushwick apartment and the seizure of a pound of marijuana, one ounce of cocaine, and a semiautomatic Tec-9 pistol, according to a detective at the 83rd Precinct.
The morning of August 3rd, NYPD and federal authorities raided the Bushwick Avenue apartment and arrested two men inside. The informant told police that the suspects had been selling drugs in the area and kept the weapon inside. The early morning arrest occurred the same day as the 27th annual National Night Out Against Violence, which was designed to promote crime prevention and awareness.
The recovered Tec-9 is the same model used in the infamous 1999 Columbine High School massacre in Colorado. The gun, which accepts a fifty round 9mm magazine, can easily be modified to shoot fully automatically. It is illegal to own the weapon in New York City and was included in the Federal Assault Weapons Ban in 1994, which made it illegal to manufacture the Tec-9 in the US. The ban expired in 2004.
"We got the tip and arrested them quickly without any issues. It was 1-2-3 because we wanted these guys off the street," the detective told BushwickBK. If convicted the suspects are looking at lengthy prison sentences for the amount of drugs recovered in the apartment and the possession of the weapon. The identities of the suspects remain unknown. NYPD press officers would not comment over the phone about the arrests and emails went unanswered.
Later on the day of the raid, at Maria Hernandez Park during National Night Out, 83rd Precinct Deputy Inspector Stephen Capasso told a crowd that officers had made more arrests that led to the recovery of two more handguns in Bushwick.
"We got three off the street and we hope to get more illegal guns off the street to make this a safer place," said Capasso.
(Correction: A previous version of this article incorrectly labeled the Tec-9 a “machine” gun. We regret the error.)
Chris Glazier August 23rd, 2010 at 3:17 pm
hey what part of bushwick ave was this? any idea?
Anon August 24th, 2010 at 12:36 pm
Hey Jonathan Mena,
Look up the definition of “machine gun” before you spout BS about a semiautomatic handgun. Do some research. Idiot.
Areth Foster-Webster August 24th, 2010 at 12:39 pm
“semiautomatic Tec-9 machine gun”
Please at least try to be accurate with your terminology. A Tec-9 is not a machine gun. As you stated in the article it is a semi-automatic hand gun. It’s like saying “an automatic Porsche with a manual transmission”. It makes me wonder what else you go wrong.
Professional Alternative August 24th, 2010 at 1:19 pm
Oh we got NRA types here now making a big deal over some technical shit nobody cares about. You can make this gun fully automatic, that’s about as “machine” as a layman cares about. Don’t worry, I don’t wonder because of this if the quotes are accurate or if the arrests actually happened.
Bast Hotep August 24th, 2010 at 1:27 pm
The “technical shit nobody cares about” is only important when people care about their rights. Your complaint 150 years ago might just well have been “Oh, we got those freedom-loving types stirring up trouble again. Slaves, indentured servants, nobody cares about the differences.”
Clark August 24th, 2010 at 1:29 pm
@Professional Alternative
The media’s job is to get the facts correctly, and as someone who is not a member of the NRA I can tell you that I do care.
And more importantly its pretty easy to modify any semi-auto to fire full auto. So the distinction actually matters.
To say nothing of the fact if the suspect did modify this semi-auto pistol to fire full auto thats another charge, something that will clearly matter to the case.
chris August 24th, 2010 at 1:36 pm
Damn, I want the coke. How much would the cops sell it for?
Jeremy Sapienza August 24th, 2010 at 1:40 pm
Thank you for bringing the gun issue to our attention. It’s been corrected.
Professional Alternative August 24th, 2010 at 1:54 pm
WOW. You got slavery in there somehow. Countdown to Nazi allusions?
Actually, the technical details should not matter at all in a rights conversation. I went ahead and checked myself after having possibly wrecked myself, and I do see the issue with the phrasing in this piece now. But do you really think it matters much if you have to pull a trigger each time you want a bullet to fly out, or not? Seems minor since bullets come out either way. I guess it could be an aiming issue, with innocent bystanders in the line of fire.
As it happens, I don’t oppose gun ownership and I’m opposed to NYC’s ban, de facto and de jure, on most guns. I just don’t see where rights comes in on the technical issue.
foobar August 24th, 2010 at 2:18 pm
The technical details to matter. Incarceration for unlawful possession of a fully automatic weapon without a permit vs unlawful possession of a handgun are COMPLETELY DIFFERENT.
None of this would be an issue if the drug war(useless waste of money) were over and NYC got its head out of its ass and let people own guns like their 2nd amendment rights call for.
Dave August 24th, 2010 at 5:34 pm
Glad to see that article was corrected about the whole machine gun error, but….
It is a TEC-9, not a Tec-9. All caps. It is model designator, not a proper name.
The picture is of a 9 mm CARTRIDGE. The “bullet” is part of the cartridge, visible on the very end of the right.
TEC-9s are NOT easily converted to full-auto. Any firearm whcih is easily converted is classified the same as a full-auto firearm. The TEC-9 had a predecessor (KG-9)which was easily modified and because of that was yanked from the market by the BATFE.
tommygunz August 25th, 2010 at 9:24 am
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TEC-9
Very dangerous firearm because of the maximum ammo capacity. It was intended as a sub-machine gun (meaning it uses pistol ammo such as 9 mm in automatic fire mode) but ended up as a semi-automatic handgun in the style of a sub-machine gun (think H&K MP5). The TEC-9 in not an accurate weapon, but makes it up in ammo capacity, therefore creating the “spray and pray” shooting style often seen in movies and tv.
A semi-automatic weapon requires the shooter to actively pull the trigger after every shot. The energy created by the controlled explosion of the cartridge (bullet and casing which contains the gunpowder and primer) moves the slide via springs and reloads the chamber with another cartridge from the magazine for another ready shot.
Dave August 25th, 2010 at 2:04 pm
ANY semi-auto pistol with a detachable magazine (which is almost all of them) can accept high capacity mags.
The TEC-9 is really not much different in capability than a Glock, Beretta, Walther, Taurus, SIG, or S&W 9 mm pistol. They are all semi-autos and therefore all have the same basic rate of fire, all fire the same ammo and therefore have the same power, and all accept high capacity mags.
It is NOT any more dangerous than any other 9 mm pistol, it just looks more scary.
Lolo August 31st, 2010 at 10:44 am
Man, only in America… It seems that a high percentage of Bushwickbk’s readership is a gun expert/ lover.
As far as I am concerned, 2nd amendment or not, there is no logical reason for a private individual to own a gun, manual, automatic, semi-automatic or whatever.