Jim March
Member
In prep for something else, I did some digging into the history of the 1911 "Sullivan Law" requiring separate permits for handgun ownership, business defense and street carry.
First, understand that this law marked a turning point: all of these concepts had been explored in Southern states, but this was the first time such laws "jumped the Mason-Dixon line" and appeared in the North.
The idea stayed dormant until after WW1, when it began spreading to other states. See also Clayton Cramer's "Racist Roots Of Gun Control" and other works covering the period 1920 - 1939 or so, which marked a battle between forces trying to do Sullivan-type laws (permits for both ownership and carry) and the NRA-supported alternative (carry permit only, handgun ownership was less stringent). Both competing systems used discretionary permits, as "shall issue" was largely unknown ('cept for Indiana).
But still, out of all of this, the Sullivan law is an anomaly. It was put in when there was little national-level push for gun control.
So what was going on?
The anti-gunners don't talk much about the creation of NYC's 1911 gun control system. http://www.vpc.org/nrainfo/chapter1.html is a typical example - look under “The Lost Opportunityâ€.
By the late 19th Century, New York had been exploring gun control concepts, but didn’t get any traction until 1910. In that year, NYC Mayor William Gaynor was wounded by gunfire and novelist David Graham Philips was shot to death on a city sidewalk.
First, understand that these were the fading days of the infamous Tammany Hall Democrat political machine. They lasted about up until FDR’s time but their stranglehold on the police (and hence the city’s organized crime) was about to come to an end. Mayor Gaynor was a respected Judge before being recruited by Tammany Hall for a Mayor’s run in 1909 as a “reform Democratâ€. Despite that connection, Gaynor appears to have been an honest man, chosen to try and clean up the image of city politics the Tammany gangsters had besmirched for literally generations. They realized reform was in the air and saw Gaynor as a very noble individual, but politically naïve enough not to uncover (or at least be able to deal with) the worst abuses. By 1913 Tammany Hall had had quite enough of the independent minded Gaynor and withdrew their support. He finally died of that old gunshot wound of 1910 shortly before the next election.
Sullivan was something else again.
“Big Tim†Sullivan was the state Senator representing the Bowery and owner of a gambling house…and 100% old-style Tammany Hall at it’s worst.
So how bad was Sullivan?
By 1912, Tim Sullivan was committed to a mental institution:
That text goes on to explain that the direct connection between Tammany Hall and the New York Police Department fell apart circa 1912, so this “original intent†of an easy frame-job is believable.
First, understand that this law marked a turning point: all of these concepts had been explored in Southern states, but this was the first time such laws "jumped the Mason-Dixon line" and appeared in the North.
The idea stayed dormant until after WW1, when it began spreading to other states. See also Clayton Cramer's "Racist Roots Of Gun Control" and other works covering the period 1920 - 1939 or so, which marked a battle between forces trying to do Sullivan-type laws (permits for both ownership and carry) and the NRA-supported alternative (carry permit only, handgun ownership was less stringent). Both competing systems used discretionary permits, as "shall issue" was largely unknown ('cept for Indiana).
But still, out of all of this, the Sullivan law is an anomaly. It was put in when there was little national-level push for gun control.
So what was going on?
The anti-gunners don't talk much about the creation of NYC's 1911 gun control system. http://www.vpc.org/nrainfo/chapter1.html is a typical example - look under “The Lost Opportunityâ€.
By the late 19th Century, New York had been exploring gun control concepts, but didn’t get any traction until 1910. In that year, NYC Mayor William Gaynor was wounded by gunfire and novelist David Graham Philips was shot to death on a city sidewalk.
First, understand that these were the fading days of the infamous Tammany Hall Democrat political machine. They lasted about up until FDR’s time but their stranglehold on the police (and hence the city’s organized crime) was about to come to an end. Mayor Gaynor was a respected Judge before being recruited by Tammany Hall for a Mayor’s run in 1909 as a “reform Democratâ€. Despite that connection, Gaynor appears to have been an honest man, chosen to try and clean up the image of city politics the Tammany gangsters had besmirched for literally generations. They realized reform was in the air and saw Gaynor as a very noble individual, but politically naïve enough not to uncover (or at least be able to deal with) the worst abuses. By 1913 Tammany Hall had had quite enough of the independent minded Gaynor and withdrew their support. He finally died of that old gunshot wound of 1910 shortly before the next election.
Sullivan was something else again.
“Big Tim†Sullivan was the state Senator representing the Bowery and owner of a gambling house…and 100% old-style Tammany Hall at it’s worst.
So how bad was Sullivan?
By 1912, Tim Sullivan was committed to a mental institution:
That text goes on to explain that the direct connection between Tammany Hall and the New York Police Department fell apart circa 1912, so this “original intent†of an easy frame-job is believable.
