The NYPD snatched her heat – and a Manhattan lawyer is going crazy.
Max Leifer is suing the NYPD after the Department’s License Division shot down his gun permit renewal application – safely carrying a firearm after nearly 50 years.
“It’s amazing that while New York City is plagued by unlicensed gun holders, the NYPD is now deprived of a law-abiding New York City who has maintained a license without a problem for 47 years,” Leifer told his Manhattan Supreme Filed in court.
The legal hawk, who never sued bridal-gown designer Vera Wang for $ 2 million, has been a lawyer since 1972 and never had the issue of renewing her gun permit every three years.
Leifer said he needs a tough “carry” permit as he makes business deals and takes a client retainer that sometimes includes a “substantial amount of cash”. He is also a partner in two bars – the Brandy Library in Tribeca and Copper & Oak in the Lower East Side – which “also generates cash.”
His renewal application was rejected in July 2020, ever since he began using the handgun for safety in 1973.
A judge must now decide whether to keep two of Leifer’s guns – a James Bond-like Walther automatic and a .38-caliber Smith & Wesson revolver – closed at the 10th Prechange Stationhouse on West 20th Street for safekeeping.
The NYPD claims that the 75-year-old leifer did not fully cooperate with his investigator by failing to produce, “among three months of bank statements and related deposit slips and documentation of being in extraordinary personal danger”, among other things. He acknowledged that the NYPD is acting like the IRS.
NYPD concluded, “Activities justifying business carry licensing in the past no longer exist.” Now you can take cash or not. You no longer do business involving expensive watches and artifacts. You no longer rent from rental properties. This is for a change in circumstance. “
Leifer called the scandal-ridden license division “a joke”.
“They do not want to license intentionally. Unlike the second amendment where a citizen should be able to keep a gun in their home or business, ”he said. “Meanwhile, all these mania are going on with unlicensed guns and shooting everyone in the street. Every day you have a shooting, a murder. “
The Post specifically revealed in December that for the first time 8,088 applications for rifle and gun permits were filed since March 22 – when the COVID-19 restrictions came into force – with only 1,087 granted, a rate of about 14 percent. During the same time period in 2019, the NYPD approved 1,778 out of 2,562 applications, a rate of about 70 percent.
The department could not provide any data on the renovation when asked last week.
Gun store owners said that at the time they were hearing complaints from potential customers whose applications have disappeared in the balance.
The licensing division was shaken by a corruption scandal in 2017, with officials accusing them of fast-tracking applications for gun licenses in exchange for involving bribes and hooters.
“There has undoubtedly been a change in the policy of issuing a carry handgun license,” said Manhattan attorney Fred Abrams, a Manhattan attorney who has been battling a gunshot problem for 30 years. “The rules guiding the police department in these licenses remain unchanged. People from all walks of life, who are deemed eligible by the License Division to get handgun licenses, are suddenly ineligible. “
Abrams said one of his clients, an auctioneer who handles more than $ 1 million in cash annually, had an unrestricted commercial carry handgun license for decades. In the previous renewal, they were given “an ultimatum: a restricted license (valid only a few days, time and geographic location) or do not obtain any license.”
A restricted permit “cannot be used outside of a licensed business base for self-defense. A gun is essentially confined to a physical location. A gun locked inside their business does them no good… they are the weakest.” Are… come from their home, take a large amount of money.
“They are easy prey.”
A source familiar with the situation told The Post in December that gun-owners began flooding the department with permit applications shortly after the May 25 police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, prompting widespread protests and riots Flare up. This has created a huge backlog.
Leifer’s “Article 78” petition – filed on 3 February – seeks renewal of his pistol license and unspecified court costs.
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