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The origin of the Sullivan Act
NY Post: The Strange Birth of NY's Gun Laws.
I researched the Sullivan Act for an amicus brief. Tim Sullivan started it out as a very narrow bill -- it just made unlicensed concealed carry a 3 year felony, rather than a misdemeanor. Then NYC's medical examiner lobbied him to pul all the other provisions in, and he agreed. But when he spoke on the floor, which he hated to do, he only talked about the three year penalty.
Even as first enacted, in 1911, it was nothing like what we see today. It required some dealer paperwork, but not registration. There was no provision forbidding open carry. It applied only to handguns. The permits were "may issue" to the max -- as in a felony could get one, if the judge allowed it. (The only bars were to juveniles and non-citizens_/
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On paper the Sullivan Act may not have applied to long guns but in 1911 a German tourist disembarked from an ocean liner in New York with a rifle over his shoulder and was arrested and jailed.
Charles - That was possibly selective prosecution because when I lived in NYC as a teen I often carried my rifle on the subway and the streets as I went to the range and also to meet people to go hunting.
Was the gun cased - that would have been important :)
Rich, he was carrying it over his shoulder.
That's what I heard too.
Crime has changed it has gotten much worst ...get with the times the Sullivan act is 100 years ago and old. As far as we're concern it just makes victims out of us New Yorkers. And a money making gimmick, and turns The innocent into violating their restrictions to protect themselves. Have you ever become a victim and have been physically Robbed and violated simply because you have to leave your gun home?
The people of New York need to come together be made aware of the antique law and repeal it . Black white or brown we are Americans and need to stand up for our constitutional rights that are being violated . Shall not be infringed !
As a correction officer for 25 years I seen inmates from NYC 2nd & 3rd time down with a 1 to 3 or 1 to 4 for armed robbery & inmates from upstate get 5 to 7 or 7 to 15 for the same offense
O Yeah. NYS Resident here. Amazing a thug wrote the firearm law, isn’t it? That Act had more to it. At the time the Irish controlled NYC Gov’t, and they didn’t want other ethnic groups armed. It was also a time of labor unrest. Sullivan Act aided the Elite’s control of union organizers.
GeeWhiz from what I read and been told NYS Sullivan Act doesn’t restrict handgun ownership. It restricts handgun possession