Billionaire NYC Mayoral Wannabe John Catsimatidis Carries Same Gun As James Bond

You do, in fact, have a concealed carrying permit, right? I do. I've had it anywhere from 35 to 40 years.

How often do you carry? For security purposes, I don't want to disclose that. I like people to think that I carry it all the time.

Do you have a particular piece that you prefer to carry? I've had the same gun for 35 years. I have a PPK/S. Maybe I was impressed by James Bond, it's the same gun James Bond carries. It's flat and unnoticeable, which is a key thing in New York City because you don't want people to notice that you're carrying a gun.

You've never had any trouble getting through security or getting patted down? I've never had any trouble in 35, 40 years. One time, about 25 years ago, I had to draw it. I got to one of my stores and there were three guys holding it up and I ended up capturing one of them.

Wait, was this all over the news? It was on 84th Street and York Avenue. We had a Sloan store at the time. It was around the holiday times and I was driving by my store. Whenever I drive by one of our stores I always look through the window and there were three guys holding it up. So I double parked my car, went around the corner, drew my gun and slowly tried to walk towards the corner. The entrance was on the corner right on 84th and York. I had my gun drawn down and all of a sudden a guy goes by me with a sawed-off shotgun—big guy, six foot six, I don't know—and he says, "Be cool man!" Second guy, "Be cool man!" and keeps walking. The third guy comes by and I wrap my arm into his arm, put my gun to his head and say, "Drop it or I'll blow your head off."

Did he drop it? He dropped it and then he dropped to the ground. Then I heard shots all over the place on 94th street. I called our security department and within a few minutes the police got there. The sergeant came with the police officers and they took the guy into custody. He was just out of jail two weeks and they ended up capturing the rest of them. They were all just out of jail two weeks and they just wanted their Christmas presents. [ED: Catsimatidis gave the account of this story nearly word-for-word to the New York Times in 2011, leading us to believe that the man's had some practice.]

What would you have done if you didn't have a gun that day? I would have probably...well, I haven't done that in the last 25 years but I probably would have just called the police and tried to take a picture of them on my cellphone.

Are you of the mind that if more New Yorkers had access to weapons that there would be more instances like this of people stopping crimes? I believe that law-abiding, mentally healthy citizens—after a waiting time and a real test of abilities and a real test of everything, with no bad history in their background—should have the right to bear arms.

What do you make of "Stand Your Ground" laws? Do you think New York State should have one? I think that "Stand Your Ground" laws need a lot of modification. I had a problem in one of my homes where I had a break-in at two o'clock in the morning. I didn't have my gun with me and if I did, I could have protected my family and I would have probably blown the guy's head off.

Look, at the time it happened, my daughter was 17 years old, my son was 14 years old and one has to protect his family. If somebody breaks into your home and you don't know what their intent is, one should have the right to have a gun in their home and protect their family.

That's interesting you bring up the idea of protection. There's a professor in that Post article we cited that says that folks like yourself who have ample protection are actually the people who need concealed carry permits the least. That is a man who tiptoes through the tulips. As a New Yorker—I'm number 212 on the Forbes list. I am a target. I have 5,000-7,000 employees between New York, Pennsylvania and Ohio that if somebody fired them and wants to get even with the boss—even though I'm not the guy firing them—I have concern. I don't want to be walking around with concern. If one wants to do business in New York City then people have to have a clear head.

You want to chase out all New Yorkers that might be targets? New York would just lose more business. Don't forget that New York State is 49th in the country for economic development. Fasten your seat belt, it might get to 50.

Mayor Bloomberg likes to tout that New York City is a startup town and that he encourages local businesses here. Do you think that's accurate? Is he as pro-business as you'd like him to be? I think the Mayor has done a wonderful job of encouraging certain businesses. I think New York City has had a better economic development than other portions of New York State. In upstate New York—we do some business up there through our oil company—some of the people up there don't have two nickels to rub together, which is very sad. I think we have to do something about upstate New York, to help them.

So you're saying it's not so much a problem with Bloomberg, you're saying it's more of an Albany issue. I think we have to be careful post-Bloomberg that we don't get the wrong mayor. Look what happened to Times Square over the last 20 years. You think if you had the wrong mayor that would have happened? You think those national companies would have written a check and did what they did? I don't think so. We need people to feel safe in New York. That's why I've been encouraging Ray Kelly to run. He's a great guy and I think New York needs him.

This past week he's denied up and down that he's running. Does that mean that you're going to run? Two things I've said. I've said I'm part of the committee to find somebody good who can run New York properly: that's pro-business and pro-people. Not a Southern Republican, a Rockefeller republican. Many Clinton democrats are now becoming Rockefeller republicans. I was a Clinton democrat, I loved Bill Clinton, I still love the Clintons.

What we need in New York City is somebody pro-business and pro-people, and that's the only way we can win and continue the good things that have happened over the last 20 years. The last time I was running for mayor—when Mike Bloomberg came and asked me for the nomination back—I willingly gave it to him. I'm not a stubborn S.O.B. I want what's best for New York. I love New York. It's the greatest city in the world! If we could find somebody that's qualified and can win and has the money to run—or has the name recognition like Kelly does—I think we all have to stand behind the right person. Some of the things happening in the Democratic party I'm concerned about because the Democratic party of today is different from the Democratic party of 20 or 30 years ago.

You could say the same about the Republicans. Yes. We need to come together and come center. Extremism in any direction is no good.

You mention that we should rally behind the candidate who has the money to win. No, that has the ability to be a great mayor for the greatest city in the world.

But you just listed it as a qualification to run... If a person doesn't have name recognition he would need more money to get the name recognition. A person like Ray Kelly, who is a household name, will need a lot less money to perform.

Bloomberg has come under a lot of criticism for being a billionaire who's out of touch with New Yorkers. If you were to run, how would you counter those criticisms? You know what I would say? I would say I agree with Ed Koch. Ed Koch is a good friend. You're never going to agree 100% with any mayor and anybody who tells you that is Whistling Dixie, or whatever the expression is.

I agree with most things Mike Bloomberg does. I don't believe in his taxi cabs that you have to get into one leg at a time! But overall, look at the economy. We went through a horrible recession in this country. I love of places in this country are suffering a great deal. New York City suffered less. The real estate industry in New York City suffered less. I credit that to a guy like Mike Bloomberg, and you have to. Look, I just want what's best for our city.

As a businessman, what do you think about his administration's handling of CityTime? Or the report that the 911 response center is a billion dollars over-budget, and inefficient? I think it's wrong. I think what happened with CityTime—look, I agree 100%. Whoever ripped off the city at CityTime should go to jail. Anybody who does anything wrong, that intentionally steals, should go to jail. I've said that to some of our national leaders, that are beating upon banks in New York. I said to them, "Look. If somebody at the bank intentionally did something wrong or intentionally stole put them in jail! Indict them! Put them in jail!" But when you take an organization—the entire Bank of America or the entire CitiBank or the entire J.P. Morgan—and punish the banks overall, that is wrong. This economy will never, ever turn around if these banks are scared of their own existence.

And when they're scared of their own existence there are no loans being made. Our country's economy will never, ever turn around unless the big, central banks are with it. The regional banks and the smaller regional banks are the ones doing the business right now. Am I talking too much? I'm just telling you the way it is. I'm a plan, vanilla person. I've lived in the city all my life and I just want to make sure we go in the right direction.

Would you lump state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman in with those bank-bashers? I had a fund raiser for Eric Schneiderman, I've known Eric Schneiderman for 40 years, that's a long time. He remembers when his mom used to bring him into one of my stores. I supported him and I raised money for him and my encouragement of him—because I invited the business community there during the fund raiser—and my encouragement of him is to have discussions with the business community before shooting from the hip. I hope he does, that's all you can hope for with some people.

You said earlier, in relation to CityTime, that people who do wrongdoing should go to jail. I think the public is frustrated that at a lot of these big banks where there was wrongdoing, no one went to jail. As a "plain, vanilla person," can you understand the frustration there when banks aren't regulated and people commit crimes and then get away with it? Yes. If somebody did wrong and knew he was doing wrong he should go to jail. That's the only way we'll correct our system.

But a moment ago you just argued against banking regulation. Wouldn't you say that a lot of the financial crisis happened because of deregulation, because these banks were allowed to gamble with people's money? There were a lot of wrongs made. Now if the wrongs were made intentionally to get a bigger bonus or whatever. If it's made by mistake that's one form of punishment. If it's made intentionally to defraud that's another type of punishment. Made intentionally to defraud, the guy should go to jail.

Do you think it's strange that no one has gone to jail? I think it's wrong, I think they should go. I agree with you. Listen, all I want is a voice because when they criticized me two weeks ago in your paper about me running for mayor, that I didn't pay my employees, did you see the answer I gave them? I will email it to you. I appreciate you calling me because nobody called me back from that. We had this ambulance chasing law firm chasing us for years. Gristedes had 60 stores and because of them we're down to 30. You know who won? The lawyers.