Berenice Abbott was an American photographer, probably most famous for her photographs of New York that she took for the Federal Arts Project from 1935-1939. They were published in a wonderful book called Changing New York.

This is a sign for a gunsmith, opposite the old Police Headquarters on Centre Street, near Little Italy. I think Abbott was making a sly joke by showing the gun pointing menacingly at the police.

 

In this image (that I took) Police headquarters is the domed building on the right. The sign that Abbott photographed is gone, but it was around the corner. This gun's aim misses the police HQ (now condos) by a half a block.