NYC Mayor Adams shuts down Brooklyn bishop’s gun permit plea
The Brooklyn pastor who called for clergy members to get special gun privileges after getting robbed at gunpoint got a rebuke from his longtime pal Mayor Adams, who said Monday he doesn’t support such a policy.
Last Friday, blinged-out Bishop Lamor Whitehead urged elected officials to pass a law that would let members of the clergy pack heat to protect their flocks.
But Adams, who has a longstanding friendship with Whitehead, threw cold water on the idea. When asked whether preachers should be given a special dispensation when it comes to being issued gun permits, Adams offered a one-word reply: “No.”
Whitehead’s foray into singing the Second Amendment’s praises began nearly a week after thieves robbed his jewels during Sunday services at his Canarsie church, Leaders of Tomorrow International Ministries. Cops said Whitehead and his family had $1 million in baubles ripped off during the robbery, but the NYPD still hasn’t nabbed any suspects.
The jarring theft, which was caught on videotape, prompted Whitehead on Friday to speak on how he’d now like to become a pistol-packing preacher.
“They need to pass a law expeditiously that pastors of houses of worship — anyone on the ecclesiastical staff — need to be able to have permits for firearms,” he said last week. “If the teachers can have it, we should be able to have it.”
The bishop, who drives a Rolls-Royce and is known for his designer threads, even suggested authorities should overlook his past sins when approving a gun permit. Before becoming a man of the cloth, Whitehead did a stint in prison for identity theft.
“No matter if we have a record, it should be exempt,” Whitehead said. “So we should be able to bear arms as the Constitution says.”
After being robbed, Whitehead came under the spotlight again when a woman alleged in a lawsuit that he bilked her out of her life savings.
Adams has more than once described himself as a mentor to the pastor, but when asked last week how he’d react if those allegations are substantiated, the mayor noted that “no one is above the law.”
About Author
