“Guns are a public menace! We must not permit lawless, reckless gun possession! Unless it’s a member of my staff, of course, in which case, meh, no biggie.”
[UPDATE: Jerome Hauer disputes some of the reported facts in this post. I have yet to find any sources that have different facts, but I will revisit both the story and my conclusions, and make appropriate revisions, retractions, or clarifications if and when warranted. You will find Mr. Hauer’s comment, and my reply to him, below.]
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has been the source of some of the most excessive anti-gun rants making up the sorry legacy of the Post Sandy Hook Ethics Train Wreck. It was a year ago that a unveiled a package of strict gun restrictions, saying that with “the senseless massacre in Newtown, Connecticut… New York must say enough is enough to gun violence.” Oh, Gov. Cuomo hates guns, believe you me.
So what do you think happened when it was revealed that Jerome Hauer, Cuomo’s Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Services Commissioner appointed in 2011, had not only been carrying a handgun to work ever since, but also, incredibly, took out the gun and used the laser sighting device attached to the barrel as a pointer in a presentation to a Swedish delegation on Oct. 24? Hauer was not only breaking the Cuomo-backed law barring state employees from packing a weapon at their workplace, but also was modeling the kind of ignorant and dangerous firearm misuse that undermines any claim that he was a safe, responsible, well-trained gun owner.
What happened appears to be this: as soon as the Governor got word that Hauer’s illegal and reckless conduct was about to be revealed in the press, the Homeland Security chief received a quick waiver from New York’s Office of General Services Commissioner RoAnn Destito. The waiver, of course, could not make his prior conduct legal.
When this came to light this week, Cuomo did a little spinning dance, defending Hauer at a news conference by saying that he’s “comfortable” with commissioners carrying weapons to work as long as they have gun permits, and “if they are licensed and in that field of work.” Hauer is not a law enforcement officer or working in law enforcement. And there is the matter of his breaking the law for three years (whether Cuomo is “comfortable” with it or not) and behaving like an idiot by using a weapon as an audio-visual aid.
Why should anyone take laws seriously that are made and administered by officials who feel they and their cronies can violate those laws at will? If Governor Cuomo were serious about regulating guns (rather than just restricting gun ownership by anyone who isn’t a member of the ruling elite)… if he understood how critical it is to maintaining the public trust that laws are seen to be enforced equally regardless of status, position and connections…if he wanted to prove that his anti-gun position wasn’t merely interest group and Democratic base pandering…indeed, if he had a shred of integrity and any operating ethics alarms at all that weren’t muffled by his astonishing arrogance, he would have used Hauer as an example, fired him, and prosecuted him.
Note: Hauer is disputing details in the story, though it seems beyond dispute that he broke the law for some time before receiving the quickie waiver, and denies the pointer incident, though there were witnesses—Swedish witness!— (and it sure seems too ridiculous to be made up.) As usual, only local papers and the “conservative media” are covering the story so far.
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Sources:Times Union, WIBX, Daily Caller, The Examiner, Hot Air,
Graphic: National Right of Life News
Jerome Hauer has been swiftly granted a waiver for the gun that he has apparently regularly carried to events with the Governor, in strict violation of state law.
The Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Services Commissioner was hired by Cuomo in 2011 and coworkers say he has been carrying the gun to work ever since.
Read More: DHSES’ Jerome Hauer Issued Gun Carry Waiver as Governor’s Aide | http://wibx950.com/destito-said-to-have-granted-waiver-to-governors-aide-after-he-allegedly-broke-gun-law/?trackback=tsmclip
Jerome Hauer has been swiftly granted a waiver for the gun that he has apparently regularly carried to events with the Governor, in strict violation of state law.
The Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Services Commissioner was hired by Cuomo in 2011 and coworkers say he has been carrying the gun to work ever since.
Read More: DHSES’ Jerome Hauer Issued Gun Carry Waiver as Governor’s Aide | http://wibx950.com/destito-said-to-have-granted-waiver-to-governors-aide-after-he-allegedly-broke-gun-law/?trackback=tsmclip
Ethics Alarms 
Jack, you are forgetting the central premise of gun-grabbers, namely that guns are great if they control them.
But you want real comedy?
One of the guys who pushed for the new NY gun law (a section of which changed “possessing a gun on school property” from a misdemeanor into a felony) was caught with a gun on school property.</a.
Well, It’s a felony now so he’s about to be hoist by his own petard. How gratifying. It’s lovely when the circle closes itself.
Hope he enjoyed legally owning guns and having a carry permit…
Because I’m pretty sure they take those away after ANY gun-related crime, regardless of the level of it, and they certainly don’t let you own guns after a felony.
I’m less concerned about his carrying a firearm- state law or no state law- than I am by both his hypocrisy and, in particular, his use of it in utilizing its laser sights as a pointer! Didn’t anyone ever explain to him the three, simple rules of gun safety? Of course, Cuomo’s reaction to this revealed his true nature. But then again, it was hardly for the first time. When you consider yourself less of a state governor than you do a Mafia capo, what behavior can’t you justify in your own mind? (I don’t call him “Benito” without reason!) What’s truly discouraging, however, is that his base supporters will have no more trouble than he in justifying this.
Hey guys just want to have fun and show off 🙂 i guess he didn’t think about whether a bullet might go though drywall and kill/wound somebody in the next office. I’m sure the Swedish delegation was impressed although the Swiss have more guns and a remarkably low incidence of terrorism and crime.
So a post crime waiver for the crime? So instead of pre-crime conviction, its like pre-conviction pardon?
I Donno, his use of the laser pointer as a meeting aid doesn’t seem odd, here is Texas, if someone still can’t tell what we’re pointing at we say “where the bullet hole is” and pull the trigger.
Often our business meetings degrade to raucous good fun shoot-outs.
By the way, we’re alway hiring.
*slides his resume to TexAgg*
You speak Spanish.
Uh… Si senor?
At least enough to tell the guys where to plant trees and bushes? Its optional if you can tell if they are making fun of the gringos or plotting the insurrection.
Well, I can point, and I can probably pick up the word for “shrub” and “tree”…
Here’s a quick lesson:
“Plant the tree there” = “Besa me en mis labios””
“Put the bushes there” = “Me encantó tu madre toda la noche”
There will be a quiz during the interview.
If they aren’t working hard enough, do you take out your phone and threaten to call immigration?
Wouldn’t work. All our guys are citizens.
I hate to tell you this, Scott, but Tex’s two sentences in Spanish don’t mean ANYTHING like what he claims it does!! Shame, shame, Tex!
I just assumed they were a version of the Finnish to English dictionary…
Hey now! Quit diming me out! You wouldn’t last long under interrogation.
?
Oh, it’s Spanish all right, Scott! It’s along the lines of what illegal aliens say to the ICE agents when they drop them off on the bridge to Nuevo Laredo.
And yes Jack, I’m joking about te laser pointer. Gads I think Progressives think gun control is a good thing, because they envision how they think guns ought to be used and they shudder in fear.
I think New York City is on a different planet than Texas.
here is Texas, if someone still can’t tell what we’re pointing at we say “where the bullet hole is” and pull the trigger.
*********
Bwahahaha
What bothers me is not that Cuomo is a hypocrite or that Hauer is a moron but that the people in the Democratic Party will defend this kind of crap to the death unless it’s a Republican hypocrite or moron. That’s why we keep getting more of the same from both parties and real, positive change will never come.
Keep demanding accountability equally from all parties, and the media, and don’t let friends and relatives be lazy, stupid or follow talking points.
With the caveat, I assume, of picking your battles. You don’t want to be the proverbial nail that sticks up and gets hammered down. What’s scary is that Cuomo could eventually reach the White House, charmless Il Duce wannabe though he is. Never underestimate the power of fraud or the gullibility of the American people.
I wouldn’t worry. He’s an ugly personality, which New Yorkers embrace, but the rest of the nation doesn’t. The last physically unattractive, difficult personality who was elected President was Nixon, and that doesn’t help. Before that? Maybe Wilson, who only won because it was a three-way race. Then we have to go back to the 19th Century. We only elect Presidents who seem nice in the media age.
I hate when I’m enough of a cynic not to be surprised by things like this. It’s a standard government trope that the state doesn’t have to follow the rules it sets- those rules are for the peasants, not their overlords. This is most visible when police misconduct goes totally unpunished, but really it’s anyone in authority, or the lapdog of anyone in authority, that doesn’t have to follow the rules. The exception, of course, is when the sinister other side breaks a rule. It’s only YOUR authority that is above all rules.
Side note: Forget proper concealed weapons instruction, this guy would have learned how wrong this was after 10 minutes at a Boy Scout rifle range.
You need to get your facts straight. There is NO law against a state employee carrying a gun to work. There is a POLICY against it for which I received a waiver before I began working for the state. The Swedes also wrote a letter to the reporter disputing his single sourced story. They have yet to correct any of this.
Regurgitating untrue facts is beneath you. I’m disappointed.
Don’t be disappointed…please send me some verification that the published timing of the waiver was three years late, and that the waiver wasn’t issued as a matter of course. (I have no idea how to reconcile the pointer story with the facts.)
The “policy vs. law that is enforced according to policy” distinction is elusive to me. As far as I can determine, NY is a state that discourages normal citizens from carrying guns into public buildings, and the central issue of the post remains—why does such a vociferously anti-gun advocate like Gov. Cuomo tolerate non-law enforcement officials under him to carry guns at all?
Once I have reliable published sources that contradict those on which I based my post, if I have them, I’ll be eager to revisit the issue and issue appropriate corrections and apologies.
Thank you for making your position clear; I appreciate it.
Actually, unless you are a cop, carrying a gun into a state or federal building has been a crime for probably a couple of decades…
Can you find me a statute? I’m lousy at searching statutes online and I haven;t found it yet. Your statement rings true, but Mr. Hauer should know his own state’s laws regarding his own conduct, so I’m giving him the benefit of the doubt. I assumed it was the NY law—it’s a Federal law and a DC law here. But he’s right–I took the newspapers’ word for it…pretty funny, given my distrust of the media.
“…unless you are a cop,…” Just expanding on that…I have always understood that judges, especially federal judges, also are accorded all kinds of leeway about packing heat, both inside and outside the workplace.
Which is why this question has been gnawing at me all day, since I read Jack’s post: Do the laws and policies of the state of New York also mean that judges, when in New York, must disarm themselves?
I’ve worked in plenty of Federal buildings where the police AND Federal law enforcement agents (including those OF THAT AGENCY) were required to surrender their weapons at a lock box at the front desk.
–Dwayne
So, have we waited enough time for him to come back with an answer? I’d hate to jump the gun in assuming he’s just another authoritarian hack that will stamp his foot and yell at you that the rules are different for him because he’s from the government (with an added helping of condescending “I’m disappointed in you” rhetoric!), but when asked to back it up mysteriously vanishes. I mean, I’m already assumign it, but I just want to be clear. He has nothing at all to prove what he says, but he sure did seem to expect you to back down and apologize.
I’m waiting. He’s a busy guy, what with having to get all those waivers and all.