We first saw this on the blog of the Union of Purple People Eaters (aka the SEIU), so we had to 'fact-check' the story and, sure enough, it appears to be true.According to Bloomberg, executives at failed-NJ governor John Corzine's old company, Goldman Sachs, are applying for handgun permits and exercising their Second Amendment rights to keep and bear arms.
While it should always be everyone's (except outlaws') right to carry, locked and loaded, in this case, the "why" is a bit odd.
According to Bloomberg's Alice Schroder:
“I just wrote my first reference for a gun permit,” said a friend, who told me of swearing to the good character of a Goldman Sachs Group Inc. banker who applied to the local police for a permit to buy a pistol. The banker had told this friend of mine that senior Goldman people have loaded up on firearms and are now equipped to defend themselves if there is a populist uprising against the bank.
I called Goldman Sachs spokesman Lucas van Praag to ask whether it’s true that Goldman partners feel they need handguns to protect themselves from the angry proletariat. He didn’t call me back....
Talk that Goldman bankers might have armed themselves in self-defense would sound ludicrous, were it not so apt a metaphor for the way that the most successful people on Wall Street have become a target for public rage.
Now, to make matters even stranger, the Union of Purple People Eaters (aka the SEIU) seems to relishing in the idea that the 'bourgeoisie' is arming itself against a 'proletariat' uprising.
The SEIU blog almost gleefully notes:
That's nothing, though, compared to today's news. Bloomberg is reporting that Goldman Sachs execs are loading up on firearms "and are now equipped to defend themselves if there is a populist uprising against the bank." The NYPD confirmed that, in fact, senior-level Goldman executives are now packing heat to protect themselves from... us? [Emphasis in original.]
...before announcing another demonstration:
If we really want to get the message across, I guess we're going to have to meet them in New York. On December 14th - around the time Wall Street
banks are expected to announce their bonuses for 2009 - we're gathering outside Goldman Sachs to suggest some alternate uses for that money.
And, this time, you can be a part of it even if you aren't in New York. There will be dozens of actions taking place in cities across the country at the same time - all outside the big banks that have taken our tax dollars but done nothing to help get the economy moving again.
We'll have the details at SEIU.org/bigbanks in the next few days about how you can get involved. I hope you'll come out and join us. And I hope we won't need to wear our bulletproof vests. [Emphasis in original.]
Forgetting the SEIU's mocking tone, regardless of their (and Barney Frank and Chris Dodd, and other Democrats') culpability in the financial morass the nation is in, Goldman Sachs execs are probably right to have a concern for their own safety.
In fact, given the SEIU's brutish and thug-like tactics against its own members, a boy scout, its egg-throwing at teachers, as well as its alleged beat down on one of its own members and a flag-selling black conservative, their fear may indeed be very justified.
One consolation though: At least with the nationwide shortage of ammunition Goldman Sachs execs will be able to use taxpayer bailout money to load up their 9 mms with.
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"I bring reason to your ears, and, in language as plain as ABC, hold up truth to your eyes."
Thomas Paine, December 23, 1776
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"When you outlaw guns, only outlaws will carry guns."
Unknown.
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