PROVIDENCE — In their continuing war against gun violence, the police have seized five handguns and arrested five suspects in recent days.

In one case, the police said they snared a Pawtucket man who was on his way to sell a handgun for $300 and 2 grams of cocaine to someone on Atwells Avenue.

Maj. Thomas F. Oates III, commander of the Investigative Division, said the seizures bring to 86 the number of firearms taken off the street so far in 2008. For all of 2007, the police confiscated 104 firearms.

As for suspects charged with gun crimes, the recent arrests bring that tally to 96, compared with 112 for all of 2007.

Police Chief Dean M. Esserman commented, “Our primary focus really hasn’t wavered in the more than five years” that he has led the Police Department. “And it’s really been a focus on bringing violence down in our city. We’ve stayed the course on that.”

Gun violence is a stubborn problem nevertheless. There have been 75 shootings in 2008, compared with 58 for all of 2007.

Homicides, however, have ticked down, to 10 so far in 2008. There were 13 in 2007.

In the case of the Pawtucket man, whom the police identified as Brian E. Reis, 27, of 1258 Newport Ave., members of the Providence police gun task force received a tip that someone would be driving in a silver Buick from Pawtucket to Providence on Wednesday of last week and that he would have a gun in the car.

The police stopped the car in the vicinity of Atwells and Bradford Street, on Federal Hill, and they said that they found a .22-caliber handgun and 21 rounds of ammunition in a bag in the trunk. Reis was charged with possessing a firearm without a license.

In the most recent of the five cases, between 8:30 p.m. and 9 p.m. Monday, the police said they tried to stop a car on Glenbridge Avenue that had dark-tinted windows and a nonworking brake light. A check of the car’s registration plate showed that it was registered to Kyron L. Ledo, 19, of 275 Amherst St.

The police said they knew Ledo is a member of a gang called Young Nigga’s in Charge, or YNC, that has been associated with gun violence, and that he was wounded in a shooting at the Manton Heights public housing project on Nov. 25.

Also wounded in the shooting was Bruce Moten, 19, of 99 Bowdoin St., who had been charged with murder in the stabbing death of a young man outside La Rumba nightclub on Fourth of July night, 2007. The charge was withdrawn later for lack of evidence.

When the police tried to stop the car Monday, they said Ledo was driving and that he ignored their lights and siren and led them on what they described as a dangerous chase on snowy streets. The pursuit ended when Ledo’s car spun out and plowed into a snowbank at Manton Avenue and Sisson Street.

Inside the car, the police alleged, Ledo had a .38-caliber handgun with one round in the chamber and six in the magazine. He was charged with possessing a firearm without a license and reckless eluding.

In the three other cases:

• Quadream Hinton, 19, of 48 Ridgeway Ave., was charged with possessing a firearm without a license. Gun task force members said they caught Hinton after a foot chase Dec. 16 and that he tried to dispose of a .22-caliber revolver.

• Justin W. Johnson, 18, of 55 Togansett Rd., was charged with possessing a firearm without a license Dec. 18, after he, too, allegedly tried to dispose of a handgun — a loaded .38-caliber revolver — and was captured after a foot chase.

• Imbert A. Joaquin, 22, of 60 Prairie Ave., was charged with possessing a firearm without a license after a shot was fired Downcity early Sunday. Off-duty police officers working a detail at Roxy nightclub said they heard a shot in the vicinity of Washington and Eddy streets. A suspect, Joaquin, was tackled behind City Hall, and the police said they recovered a .45-caliber handgun that he allegedly had been carrying.

gsmith@projo.com