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.

The Meteor Man

Thespec.com has a report on a professional meteorite hunter from Portland Oregon.

Rob Wesel recently tracked down the Grimsby space rock, which he's now putting up for sale on the Internet. He says it's unlikely that he'll get back the money he spent on the cross-continent adventure he took to find the 14.5 gram stone.

He figures he'll be lucky to get $2,500 toward a trip that cost twice that for him and a buddy. He's more hoping to trade his gem for a type of meteorite he's missing in his collection of several hundred.

Meteorites frequently fall to the earth, but seldom with as much excitement as the one in Grimsby. It's rare to have video footage of one in the air. The Grimsby meteorite also gave a glimpse at the world of space rock chasers who will passionately fly off to places where meteorites have been reported.

"I liken it to the folks who go tornado chasing, only we get to keep the tornado at the end of the day," said Wesel.

I couldn't help thinking that some of our blog friends like Joe Huffman and Linoge might like to play their beloved word substitution game with this story. It could be fun.

What's your opinion? Please leave a comment.

2009 Murders in New York City

The New York Times reports on the declining number of murders and other violent crime in the city.

There were days upon days in New York City when not a single person was murdered in 2009. Two such stretches, in February and March, lasted nearly a week each.

There were some pockets of the city where homicide was a singular occurrence: 12 of the city’s 77 police precincts, in locations as varied as Hamilton Heights, in Upper Manhattan, and Park Slope, Brooklyn, had logged one each through Sunday.

The story line of murder in New York is one that has been undergoing constant revision since 1963, when the Police Department began tracking homicides in a way that officials now deem reliable. (Before then, homicides were not counted until they were solved.) There have been rises — the number peaked at 2,245 in 1990 — and subsequent falls. But there have never been as few homicides as this year.

The city is on track, for the second time in three years, to have the fewest homicides in a 12-month period since the current record keeping system began. As of Sunday, there had been 461; the record low was in 2007, when there were 496 for the entire year.

Just like there's shared responsibility when things go wrong, in cases like this where things improve, there's shared credit. Mayor Bloomfield certainly deserves his share. Of course there are many factors, but decreasing gun availability is one of them.

Curbing gun use is linked to lowering the homicide rate, officials said, and Mr. Kelly lauded the mayor’s effort to stop illegal guns from flowing into New York, saying 90 percent of the guns that are confiscated after they are used in crimes come from out of state. He also cited the department’s program of questioning and frisking some people on the streets as a “lifesaving” strategy that had led to the seizure of 7,000 weapons this year, including 800 guns.

“We have a policy of engagement, and I think it’s working,” Mr. Kelly said. “We believe young people who may have a gun think twice before they take it out on the street.”

What's your opinion? Is New York City becoming safer and safer? Is it now the safest big city in America, as we read in another report recently?

What's your opinion? Please leave a comment.

Shared Responsibility in the Delta Terror Attack

Crooks and Liars posted a fascinating video in which Rep. Pete Hoekstra told Fox News' Chris Wallace Sunday that it is "fair" to hold the Obama administration responsible for the a failure to detect an attempted terror attack. Friday, Hoekstra told the Detroit Free Press that the Obama administration needed to "connect the dots."

Now, I'm all for the idea of shared responsibility, but this doesn't seem to be a case of it. Hoekstra explained that the reason the Obama administration should be held responsible is because they've stopped using the work "terrorist." This has somehow allowed our collective guard to be lowered and a near tragedy resulted in Detroit.

Here's what John Amato has to say about it.

What depths will these conservative hacks sink to as they attack President Obama? For what I have no idea. Hoekstra hasn't even been briefed on the attacks, but he has his talking points ready. Does he also hold Bush and Cheney accountable for the 9/11 attacks, the anthrax attacks and the shoe bomber attack? That would have been a proper follow up question from Chris Wallace, but that would never happen. And since no one was hurt in the newest try unlike what happened under Bush, Hoekstra should be praising Obama.

What's your opinion? Do you think Representative Hoekstra would go for my theory about legitimate gun owners being partly responsible for the gun problems in America? Is it right for him to blame Obama?

Please leave a comment.

DGU by 81-Year-Old Man

The Sacramento Bee reported on this defensive gun use.

An 81-year-old man being robbed inside his Sacramento home Saturday evening scared off his assailants when he fired several shots, police said.

Sacramento police spokesman Sgt. Norm Leong said two black men in their 20s asked to use the phone at the victim's home in the 6000 block of Hollyhurst Way shortly before 6:40 p.m.

When they were inside the house, the robbers pulled a gun on the victim and proceeded to rob the place, Leong said.

However, at some point they left the victim in a room where he kept a gun. The victim fired a few rounds through a door, which caused the robbers to flee, Leong said.

Authorities said the victim, believed to be by himself during the robbery, was not hurt.

It was unclear if he hit either of the robbers, police said.

No other description of the suspects was provided.

That's a wonderful story of a very lucky senior citizen. But most remarkable is the rarity of this type of incident during the holidays. I've read literally scores of headlines about Christmas Eve and Christmas Day shootings. Every major city was represented as well as many smaller ones.

Some say it's disproportionate because of the bias of the main stream media. Others say it's simply that violent misuse of guns makes for more sensational headlines. I don't believe either one of those explanations.

Some people rightly point out that many DGUs require only brandishing of the weapon and result in no reporting of the incident at all. This is offset by the violent misuse of weapons that don't result in shots fired but are nevertheless criminal.

For me it continually becomes clearer. True DGUs are rare in comparison to gun violence.

What's your opinion? Please leave a comment.

Gun Trafficking Prevention Act of 2009

On the web site of U.S. Senator from New York, Kristen Gillibrand, there's a wonderful explanation of the recently proposed Gun Trafficking Prevention Act of 2009.

A new measure aimed at eliminating the steady flow of illegal guns into New York is being advanced by U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand and Rep. Carolyn McCarthy who point out that nearly 90 percent of the guns used in gun crimes in New York City come from out of state, and approximately 90 percent of these guns are illegal.

Uh-oh, here we go with the 90% claims again. Do you think in this case the phrase "nearly 90% of the guns used in gun crimes in New York City come from out of state, and approximately 90 percent of these guns are illegal," will stand up to criticism? To me it doesn't seem couched in tricky language like the more famous claim that "90% of the guns traced in Mexico came from the U.S." What do you think?

By creating more options and providing flexibility for prosecutors and judges, we increase the tools that are available for prosecutors in the federal criminal justice system to appropriately crack down on individuals who are engaged in every aspect of gun trafficking.

I often hear the complaint that laws like this are unnecessary because the things they legislate are already illegal. This one, however does call for longer prison sentences for gun trafficking as well as increasing the focus on criminal gun dealers.

What's your opinion? Please leave a comment.

Gun Laws in India

Meri News ran a story about the history of gun laws in India. What I found fascinating besides the Indian-English style of writing is the similarity of the arguments to those in the United States.

After putting an end to mutiny of 1857, British viceroy Lord Lytton (1874 -1880), brought into existence the Indian Arms Act, 1878(11 of 1878);an act which, exempted Europeans and ensured that no Indian could possess a weapon of any description unless the British masters considered him a "LOYAL" subject of the British Empire. Father of Nation M.K.Gandhi referring to Arms Act of 1878 remarked "Among the many misdeeds of the British rule in India, history will look upon the act of depriving a whole nation of arms, as the blackest" (page 238, My Experiment with Truth, M K Gandhi).

After a lengthy description of modern laws which have left the Indian people disarmed still, the author presents these ideas.

Many may say,'What difference will possessing arms make?'. The right answer to this question could be perfectly answered by ones logical mind. On 26/11, even if 10% of the crowd at Taj Hotel beared arms, there wouldnt have been a human slaughter! The simple reason being atleast 50% of the 10% arms owner would have had the guts to shoot-down the terrorist. It has been one complete year for 26/11 event and still our Indian Government are busy requesting quotations from foreign arms manufacturers.

Although we have a few "well-known" shooters in India (on state/national level) only a few make it to the Internationals. Why? The reason being stringent gun laws. Today, if a professional shooter is to import a "air-gun" , he/she has to go through the whole officials hierarchy just to acquire the permission ! Believe it or not , Indian made "air-guns" are good for level 0-1 only , ammunition and shooting range charges excluded . If one decides to take the shooting sport professionally , he/she has to think it twice (from money/time aspect).

It has always been talked about guns affecting the crime rate of a country, but never ever has it been thought, to take an effective action on illegal arms trade, which in turn will reduce the crime rate itself. A fact never known to the law abiding comman man, is that, these criminals posses pistols/revolvers which are as sophisticated as a .44 magnum, whose one bullet is sufficient to take down a 85kg healthy man. Whereas our Indian police use the same old Service Revolvers/Pistols , which malfunction when they are needed the most!

Legally armed citizen, in fact can help government to curb the crime and fight militancy.There have been many instance in country where citizens snatched weapons from criminals/terrorists and foiled their designs thus preventing loss of life and property. In one such incident,reported from Jammu and Kashmir, a girl not only killed one militant commander but also scared others to run for their life without doing any harm to her family.These results can be optimized by helping these citizens getting armed with adequate knowledge and arms as they have full right to protect their life and property,after all they are law abiding citizens of this country.

Fascinating, isn't it? What's your opinion? Please leave a comment.