A gun nut who stockpiled more than 300 illegal firearms at his Long Island home also had rare devices that turn semiautomatic rifles into fully automatic machine guns, officials said yesterday.
Amateur gunsmith Jay Steiner, 66, was arrested in January after allegedly turning his Centereach house — across the street from a high school — into an illicit armory.
Many of the weapons were allegedly strewn around his home.
Officials said they found five locked and loaded guns in a dresser drawer, a shotgun hanging above a closet and a .38-caliber revolver in the kitchen.
Steiner also offered weapon-repair services, despite not having a license to do so, officials said.
Suffolk County DA Thomas Spota said his office spent months analyzing the arsenal, and discovered three devices known as “auto sears,” which turn rifles into machine guns.
The devices are considered illegal in New York state only if attached to a firearm, and Steiner had not rigged it that way, Spota said.
It’s illegal to possess a sear under federal law, but Steiner has not been federally charged.
“Plain and simple, he should not have had these guns, and the manner in which he stored [them] is shocking,” Spota said.
As part of a sting, an undercover cop asked Steiner to fix a revolver and the suspect allegedly obliged.