Tuesday, December 29, 2009

Andrew Madoff has a Gun Permit

The Gothamist reports on the latest news on young Andy Madoff.
The Post reports that Andrew Madoff, the 43-year-old son of Ponzi schemer Bernard Madoff, "applied for a license to keep a handgun in his swanky Upper East Side pad more than six months ago -- and his name appears on NYPD and state police lists of approved permit holders." Is he trying to keep up with those alleged Goldman Sachs employees who are packing heat these days?

The Post questions this decision, because Madoff got into an argument with a former employee of his father's firm and the two men ended up in an "entertaining" "bitch fight" on a Upper East Side street earlier this year. A Post source says, "I would think that if the license division knew about that, they would suspend his permit immediately"—because the NYPD "commonly gives them to those with clean records and no history of mental or substance problems"— but, hey, no one was arrested!

The NYPD claims Madoff's application wasn't approved, but the State Police, which gets its info from NYC, says that he appears on the "roster of license holders." Well, at any rate, he is being sued for taking $60 million in ill-gotten gains and can't find work, so this gun kerfuffle is the least of his worries.

What's your opinion? Are the strict gun laws in New York discriminatory against poorer people? That's the inference whenever they talk about the Goldman Sachs guys having gun permits isn't it?

Do you think the Madoff sons could have been innocent of the crimes their father was convicted of and yet have acquired so much of the money? Does that make sense? Maybe the old man made a deal that his family members not be charged criminally, what do you think?

What about that fight Andy Madoff had been involved in? Should something like that disqualify a person from having a gun? What's your opinion? Please leave a comment.

10 comments:

  1. "What's your opinion? Are the strict gun laws in New York discriminatory against poorer people?"

    Gun control in general discriminates against the poor.

    Licensing and registration ensures that gun ownership is limited to those who can afford the cost of regularly filing paperwork. Especially in places like DC where you essentially have to take a day off of work and be prepared to do about 3 hours worth of commuting to buy a gun.

    The NFA tax on suppressors was concocted to prevent hungry, poor people from engaging in clandestine poaching during The Great Depression.

    So-called "junk gun" bans are used to ban guns that were commonly purchased by low income people.

    And Laci's bright idea of heavily taxing guns has also been thrown around before as another way of discriminating against the poor.

    The Limousine Liberal crowd has always wanted to make shooting into a wealthy man's hobby. And who can blame them? They live in fear of the day where some poor working sap wakes up and realizes whose been screwing him over all these years. And that working sap might decide to put a bullet through the window of one of those limousines.

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  2. "Are the strict gun laws in New York discriminatory against poorer people? That's the inference whenever they talk about the Goldman Sachs guys having gun permits isn't it?"

    It is not a matter of rich or poor but a matter of who knows who. Obviously, most permit holders are wealthy because that is what becomes of a corrupt licensing system based upon political connection.

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  3. "The Limousine Liberal crowd has always wanted to make shooting into a wealthy man's hobby. And who can blame them? They live in fear of the day where some poor working sap wakes up and realizes whose been screwing him over all these years. And that working sap might decide to put a bullet through the window of one of those limousines."

    Gosh, that's a cogent argument if ever I read one--NOT.

    If all of the downtrodden had guns--and wanted to get "theirs" from the MAN--I suspect they would not be asking anyone in a limo about their politics before jacking the ride and robbing the slug in the backseat.

    It would be nice if someday a truly comprehensive study would be done, and it's findings published, indicating just exactly why places like NYC, Baltimore, Miami, L.A., Houston and numerous other large cities have so much more crime, per capita, than smaller cities--like the down at the heels Central NY city which I live in. Since that is not, afaia, in the offing I will have to make a conjecture about why that state of affairs obtains. I would say that large cities, packed with poor, pissed off people might be a breeding ground for all sorts of violent behavior. Add in the presence of the ostentatiously wealthy in their limos (or Hummers, Range Rovers, Lexii, whatever) and, yes, those poor folks, if properly armed might be dispossessing the limousine liberals (although outside of Hollywood, CA, I doubt that the political bent of most chauffered riders is to the left) of their rides and other capitalist trappings.

    I know Wikipedia is not a primary source, but I have to get to work and the source they refer back to for this (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_cities_by_crime_rate) is the FBI's crime statistics for 2008. So, if the stats aren't cooked it looks like the only way that NYC keeps from having a truly horrific murder/homicide rate like, say, Memphis and Nashville, TN; Houston and Dallas, TX; New Orleans, LA; Tampa and Jacksonville, Fl; Omaha, NE (my hometown--Go, 'Skers!); Mobile, AL and Tulsa, OK. Strange as it may seem, NYC--that lawless, liberal and pathetically undergunned cesspool of moral depravity has the same rate for "Murder and nonnegligent manslaughter", 6.3/100K population is the same as that of Colorado Springs, CO (PatriotJESUS Central).

    Whoops, it looks like some other cities like Buffalo, NY also have pretty high rates for that sort of thing. See, that's the trouble with relying on statistics for everything. Numbers don't lie, but number crunchers do.

    Please provide the peer reviewed study that you are relying on for that paragraph about limousine liberals. Thanks!

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  4. Darn, must remember, "Preview is out friend!".

    The bit about NYC's crime rate should have read:

    "So, if the stats aren't cooked it looks like the only way that NYC keeps from having a truly horrific murder/homicide rate...Mobile, AL and Tulsa, OK" is for them to continue doing what they're doing. Strange as it may seem, NYC--that lawless, liberal and pathetically undergunned cesspool of moral depravity has the same rate for "Murder and nonnegligent manslaughter", 6.3/100K population is the same as that of Colorado Springs, CO (PatriotJESUS Central)."

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  5. From what I can see, this is a permint to possess in the home, not a permit to carry--If I remember correctly NYC has less than 1000 carry licenses for the entire city, and a NY state carry license doesn't allow you to carry in NYC.

    Yes, "may issue" discriminates against the poor. Licenses should use objective criteria, whether we are talking guns, driving, or cosmetology.

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  6. I'm not sure how it's handled but I gotta guess that between embassies and other folks with security needs that there must be considerably more than a thousand ccw permits in NYC. I'm not making an argument, I just don't think that all of those people are carrying illegally.

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  7. democommie, that's a good point about the embassies and all. Good thing you're not making an argument out of it, you'd probably win.

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  8. I was going by memory, and it looks like I am a bit off--Apparently about 3400 civilian carry licenses. It appears that some of this number include former police who quit before retirement, and a few other government officials who don't fall in another category. (their licenses aren't automatic, but under easier standards than mere civilians) 

    There are 12,208 retired police carry licenses.   


    Embassies and such almost certainly work under diplomatic immunity.  A lot of security is done by off duty and retired police, and there is a separate license for armed guards. 

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  9. Embassies and such almost certainly work under diplomatic immunity.

    Yup. Imagine if the private armed security for every head of state had to obtain a CCW permit.

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