On Hypocrisy

John Crewdson has an article on Bloomberg in which he laments the progress of H.R. 822.  One implication of the bill is that a New York resident could bypass his own state’s requirements by simply getting a non-resident concealed weapon license from Florida, which New York would have to honor.

Apparently, this represents such an existential crisis for Mr. Crewdson that he applied for a Florida license. He details the process in the article, along with the fact that he lied on the application:

I’ve never touched a handgun and I haven’t been to Florida in decades, yet this month Florida officials mailed me a permit to carry a concealed gun.  (…)  Florida, which granted my permit after I viewed a half- hour, online safety video, now says it made a mistake.

Florida Statute 790.06 clearly stipulates that the applicant must have taken one of the training courses listed within, but Mr. Crewdson did not complete any of them.  False statements on the application constitute a second-degree misdemeanor under Section 837.06.  Oops.

Will he be prosecuted?  Unlikely.  Still, there’s a certain bit of schadenfreude in the fact that a Pulitzer Prize winner would have to sink this low to make a point.  It makes me question the validity of the Pulitzer when they’ll give one to this shill, but not to Duke Ellington.

(Thanks to Rob Allen for the heads-up.)