Gillibrand touts gun-trafficking arrests, including one in WNY, resulting from law she passed

Sen. Kirsten E. Gillibrand, a New York Democrat who had pushed for the law, announced those findings Tuesday in a report on the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act that was passed in reaction to the racist Tops shooting that killed 10 Black people and a school shooting 10 days later in Uvalde, Texas, that killed 19 children and two adults. She also noted that the law resulted in the seizure of more than 1,300 guns, including more than 120 in New York State.

While rogue gun dealers could be arrested under other federal statutes, gun trafficking itself was not a federal crime until passage of that law.

“These are extraordinary results for a law that’s only been in use for less than a year and a half, and I’m eager to see the enormous impact I know it will have in the years ahead,” Gillibrand told reporters on a conference call.

Gillibrand’s report said that the law resulted in the arrest of Christian Arroyo Collazo, 27, of New Castle, Pa., in September. Federal agents accuse him of illegally selling guns in the Jamestown area, often via Facebook Messenger.

“It appears Arroyo Collazo has sold or transferred and attempted to sell or transfer several firearms to Jamestown-based drug traffickers and New York residents,” including some who have criminal convictions, Christopher M. Szmania, a U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration Task Force officer, said in court papers.

Szmania’s affidavit includes photos of about 20 weapons that Arroyo Collazo is suspected of selling or attempting to sell in Western New York. Most are handguns, but several are semiautomatic long guns. At least two individuals have since been arrested while possessing guns that Arroyo Collazo sold them, the affidavit stated.

Arroyo Collazo has been charged…