DANVERS - A Prince Street man is being held without bail on charges that he failed to report the disappearance of at least six guns, including a machine gun and an assault rifle - guns Edward Morando now claims were stolen by a drug-dealing former roommate.

"These are the guns that get used in crimes," prosecutor Poppi Hagan argued during a hearing yesterday afternoon in Salem District Court, where she asked a judge to hold Morando, 24, without bail pending a dangerousness hearing next week.

Back on Feb. 9, Danvers police went to Morando's home after his gun license was suspended because of a pending domestic assault case in Middlesex County, Hagan said.

While police had records indicating that Morando owned 14 guns, they found just one gun at his 2A Prince St. home, a shotgun stored improperly in a closet - and empty boxes for other guns, along with ammunition for a variety of weapons.

Morando initially claimed that he had sold many of the guns and had been storing "three or four" at his parents' home in Peabody. But when police searched the home, they did not find any guns, nor a safe where Morando claimed they were stored.

Confronted with that information, Morando first suggested that the guns may have been lost or stolen. Eventually, Morando in a subsequent interview told investigators from the Danvers police and the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms that his former roommate, a man he called "Manny Espinal," had stolen the guns while moving out in September.

Morando told the investigators that "Espinal" was a drug dealer who had sold him OxyContin and crack cocaine, Hagan said, citing a police report.

Morando said he had stopped using illegal drugs and was now taking methadone.

In a later interview, Morando's account shifted again, after investigators found paperwork regarding a machine gun that was not found and confronted him with a police report about an incident at his home in November.

During that visit to his home, police noticed a number of unsecured weapons left around the living room, some two months after Morando claimed the guns had been stolen.

Morando acknowledged that he had not been candid with investigators, saying he feared losing his gun license and that he was trying to buy the guns back from "Espinal."

Hagan argued that Morando's varying accounts contain "a slew of inconsistencies" and that police at this point have no idea what happened to six of the guns.

Morando was also charged with the improper sale of two guns that he did not report, as required by law. Several other guns were legally sold.

Police obtained an arrest warrant for Morando on Thursday. He turned himself in at Salem District Court yesterday morning and was taken into custody.

His attorney, Benjamin Richard, argued that Morando has attempted to cooperate with police and urged a judge to release him on the same $5,000 bail he posted after he was originally charged with improper storage of a gun back in February.

"It's certainly not the week to be arguing about guns in any court in the country," Richard said.

Richard also argued that prosecutors do not have a legal right to ask that Morando be held without bail because the specific charges against him - improper sale of firearms and failing to report loss or theft of firearms - are not among the offenses that lets judges deny bail.

Judge Sabita Singh said it was a "close" legal issue but ordered him held until Monday, when there will be a hearing to determine whether he poses a danger if released.