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© DCPIThe illegal Taurus 9MM semi-automatic pistol that an eight year-old swiped from his father to sell at school.
The Queens third-grader who sold his father's loaded handgun to a classmate for $3.50 plucked it off the top of a shelf where his dad hid it for protection, officials said yesterday.

Three live rounds were in the illegal 9-mm. pistol when the 8-year-old boy brought it into Public School 107 in Flushing and sold it Thursday, cops say.

The gun's serial number had been scratched off, police said.

Ignacio Galvan, 54, was arraigned last night in Queens Criminal Court on charges of criminal possession of a weapon and endangering the welfare of a child. He was being held in lieu of $3,000 bail.

The boy faces weapons possession charges in Queens Family Court.

"I can't believe my son took it to school," Galvan told cops, according to court papers. "Thank God no one was hurt. It's all my fault."

Galvan said he bought the gun illegally for about $300 in Jackson Heights eight years ago and kept it in the garage, the papers show.

"I bought it for protection," he said, adding that he never fired or oiled the gun since. "I never used it."

Galvan said he brought it into the house after his wife told him a few days ago that someone tried to break in through the side door, the papers show.

"I put the safety on and I put it on top of the refrigerator," he said.

Officials found out about the gun sale when the mother of the boy who bought it called the school. Her son had carried the gun home in his book bag, sources said.

"The boy who purchased it did bring it home and his mother saw it and she called the principal," Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said. "The principal told the mother to come in with her kid and the gun."

The boy who bought the gun has been suspended, Kelly said.

Co-authors: Rocco Parascandola, Joe Jackson and Thomas Zambito