http://www.nypost.com/news/regionalnews/63648.htm
Interesting, but not really news. Too bad the applicant numbers don't specify if they include security-guard applicants . . .
LOOK WHO'S PACKIN'
By HEATHER GILMORE and BRAD HAMILTON
March 26, 2006 -- Billionaires are going ballistic.
Ronald Lauder has joined trigger-happy tycoons Donald Trump and Seagrams scion Edgar Bronfman Sr. as the richest men in the city packing heat, according to the NYPD's gun-permit list.
Lauder, the cosmetics heir, and multimillionaire Marvel Comics CEO Isaac Perlmutter are the newest gun-club members licensed to carry a weapon - topping a list that already included "Mean Streets" actors Harvey Keitel and Robert De Niro, "Scarface" producer Martin Bregman and shock jocks Don Imus and Howard Stern.
These boldfaced names are among more than 38,000 licensed gun owners in the city; the number has steadily declined in recent years as fewer people apply for permits - and fewer are approved.
"The review is thorough and it may include a site visit," said Police Inspector Michael Coan. "Permits are reviewed upon renewal to ensure proper cause exists to continue the permit."
Other gun-toting notables - who have a license to carry as opposed to a permit to keep their weapon only at a home or business - include anti-gun activist Fernando Mateo and Giuliani Partners execs Richard Sheirer and Anthony Carbonetti - an in-law of the notorious booze-peddling Dorrian clan.
Republican Senate majority leader Joe Bruno and music czar Tommy Mottola remain licensed carriers, according to NYPD records through March 17.
Millionaire Winthrop Rockefeller and former TV Anchor John Roland are no longer on the list; the NYPD wouldn't say why not.
Former Manhattan Judge Leslie Crocker Snyder is also licensed to carry a firearm.
"You will see a lot of judges with [gun] permits, and I've also noticed over the years more women applying," said NYPD License Division Capt. Mike Endall.
Queens DA Richard Brown is the only elected prosecutor in the city with a gun license, but "he has his own security, so he doesn't walk around carrying a gun," said spokeswoman Nicole Navas.
Celebrity divorce lawyer Raoul Felder said he has carried a gun since 1961 during his days as a prosecutor.
"A man threatened to kill me, and since he was a murderer I thought it was time to get a gun," he said. "We live in a very disturbed age. There's all kinds of sickness."
Subway vigilante Bernie Goetz's lawyer, Barry Slotnick, is also strapped.
Last year 3,187 people applied for gun licenses, and 2,575, or 81 percent, were approved. In the same period, 141 licenses were revoked and 4,103 licenses were canceled.
In 2004, 3,454 applications were filed and 2,860 - or 83 percent - were approved; 189 licenses were revoked and 3,473 cancelled.
Interesting, but not really news. Too bad the applicant numbers don't specify if they include security-guard applicants . . .
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