In an effort to crack down on gun crime, the NYPD has started swabbing every gun it recovers for DNA. To handle the workload, the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner has been staffing up, trying to add nearly 75 new scientists and support staff.

WNYC partnered with The Trace, a nonprofit news site that covers guns in America, and spent months looking into the initiative. While it's still early, attorneys says it's already having an impact in court, where defendants accused of even simple gun possession charges are facing stiff prison sentences.

Click above to hear WNYC's story. And click here to read the article in The Trace, or here to read it in the New York Daily News.