Lawyer gunning for his rights

‘I may have to join a gang to carry’

A Manhattan lawyer lost a gun battle this week, but he’s not giving up his war against what he sees as the NYPD’s crackdown on the right to bear arms.

Max Leifer sued New York’s Finest because the department’s License Division rejected his gun permit renewal application in July 2020, saying he failed to prove the need to pack heat.

“It seems that celebrities, athletes and a select few are allowed permits, while law-abiding citizens are denied their constitutional right. To be able to carry in New York you would have to join a gang,” Leifer fumed to The Post.

The feisty 75-year-old, who has had a gun license for nearly 50 years, insists he needs the “carry” permit because he does business deals and takes client retainers that sometimes involve a “substantial amount of cash.”

Leifer is also a partner in two bars that do cash business.

A Manhattan Supreme Court justice this week denied Leifer’s appeal to get his guns back — so the attorney is now taking his case to the appellate division.

Amid the pandemic and the Big Apple’s staggering surge in shootings, new firearm applications nearly tripled in 2020 (9,395) from 2019 (3,766), but have dipped this year through Nov. 30 (4,312), NYPD data show.

A nearly 70 percent approval rate in 2019 plunged to less than 14 percent in the March-December 2020 period, data show.

The crackdown doesn’t shock retired NYPD copturned-private eye Bo Dietl.

“I know a lot a guys who tried to re-up their pistol license and they’re not allowing them to re-up. They’ve had these carry permits for 30 or 40 years. It’s not right,” he said. “The reality is a lot of these people who are being denied are good, lawabidresponsible ing citizens.”

Dietl said it was especially unfair to deny gun owners given “the crime problem in New York City . . . You have to equal the odds.”

He said the NYPD plays favorites when it comes to issuing gun permits. “Years ago I was responsible for getting [late shock jock Don] Imus’ gun permit. There was preferential treatment for celebrities.”

In 2017, the License Division was scarred by a corruption probe, with cops accused of fast–tracking gun applications in exchange for booze and hookers. “They got crazy because of that scanLeifer dal,” said of the division’s approval rate. Leifer’s James Bond-like Walther au.38-caliber tomatic and a Smith & Wesson revolver remain locked away at the 10th Precinct stationhouse in Chelsea. “The activities which justified granting a Business Carry License in the past, do not exist anymore,” the NYPD said in its original ruling against Leifer. “You no longer carry or transport cash. You no longer transact business involving expensive watches and artifacts.

You no longer collect rent from rental properties. This amounts to a change in circumstance.”

Leifer said he needs his guns now more than ever.

“It’s definitely BS. This is arbitrary. I cannot understand the rationale to deprive me of my rights,” he said. “I may have to join a gang. They are the only people carrying.”