Sometimes, when you don't have a laser pointer handy, you use the next best thing: A gun. The Times Union reports that NY State Homeland Security and Emergency Services Commissioner Jerome Hauer "took out his handgun and used the laser sighting device attached to the barrel as a pointer in a presentation to a foreign delegation." Naturally, that upset the foreign delegation, too!

The alleged incident occurred at the state capitol building in Albany, on October 24. From the Times-Union:

[Public] officials, one of whom claimed to be an eyewitness, said that three Swedish emergency managers in the delegation were rattled when the gun's laser tracked across one of their heads before Hauer found the map of New York, at which he wanted to point. Hauer, commissioner of the Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Services, was disabled by a stroke a few years ago and can be unsteady. He isn't a law enforcement official. He carries the loaded 9-millimeter Glock in a holster into state buildings, an apparent violation of state law barring state employees from bringing weapons to the workplace, several witnesses say… According to one person who witnessed the scene in the conference room, which has mid-wall-to-ceiling windows so that people can see into the meeting space, two people opposite Hauer at the table moved quickly out of the line of the laser when he brought out the gun.

Also: "No one, including Hauer, has denied the episode happened. Approached by the Times Union at the Capitol after a meeting with Cuomo, Hauer was asked if he had used his gun as a pointer in a presentation. 'You have bad sources,' he said, but would not take follow-up questions."

Hauer, a bioterrorism expert who used to work at the NYC Office of Emergency Management under Rudy Giuliani, is licensed to carry a gun in NY State and NYC, but it's unclear if he can carry a gun in the state offices. Also, when he was previously asked why he carried a gun, the Times-Union reports, "Hauer suggested that a reporter look him up in a Google search."