What Is It?The Sullivan Act is a New York state law that requires a permit to carry or own any gun small enough to be concealed. Because the permit is issued by local law enforcement, it provides a great deal of local control on firearm availability. - Passed by the New York Senate May 10, 1911
- Passed by the New York Assembly May 15, 1911
- Signed into law May 29, 1911
- In force as of September 1, 1911
- amended in 1931 to require finger prints and photographs
The permit requirement is on a per gun basis. The initial fee of $3.00 per gun meant that poor people were immediately priced out of the legal gun market. Although promising to never raise the fee, it now sits at $55.00 per gun and the city takes up to six months. Before the Sullivan ActJanuary 27, 1905 New York Times Editorial - [The proposed gun control] measure would prove corrective and salutary in a city filled with immigrants and evil communications, floating from the shores of Italy and Austria-Hungary. New York police reports frequently testify to the fact that the Italian and other south Continental gentry here are acquainted with the pocket pistol, and while drunk or merrymaking will use it quite as handily as the stiletto, and with more deadly effect. It is hoped that this treacherous and distinctly outlandish mode of settling disputes may not spread to corrupt the native good manners of the community. Personal Motivations"Big Tim" Sullivan was a politician and organized crime boss in this period. He was a part of the Tammany Hall political machine that controlled a corrupt New York City Police Department (and thereby the future Pistol Licensing Bureau). He also owned the Hesper Club, a successful gambling establishment on the lower east side. This is the man who proposed the Sullivan Act and it is named after. By writing the law as it was, Sullivan provided himself several advantages. He could: - guarantee his body guards could be armed,
- guarantee his opponent's body guards should not be armed,
- and use a corrupt police force to arrest his opponents for violations, guilty or not.
It is said that one political opponent had all his pockets sewn closed after three arrests for carrying guns without a permit. Public ExpedienciesAugust 9, 1910 - James Gallagher shoots New York Mayor William Jay Gaynor in the throat. January 23, 1911 - David Graham Philips, a popular novelist, shot and killed on a New York sidewalk. Sullivan promises that if this bill passes, homicides would drop substantially. In fact, post Sullivan Act, suicides dropped by 50% but murders did not drop. How Was It Enforced?The first person arrested under the Sullivan Act was Guiseppe Costabile, an Italian mobster. How Is It Currently Enforced? - Bernard Goetz
- Recent cases involving Sullivan.
To InvestigateU.S. Supreme Court decision Murdock v Penn. 319 U.S. 105 (1943) - Slim majority of court overruled Jones v. Opelika and ruled that imposing a fee to sell religious literature door-to-door was too great a burden on religious liberty. Case was brought by Jehovah's Witnesses.
"If he has it in his possession, he can readily stick it in his pocket when he goes abroad." - People Ex Rel. Darling v. Warden of City Prison, 139 N.Y.S. 277, 154 App. Div. 413, 423, 29 N.Y.Cr. 74 (1913).
From http://www.dpo.uab.edu/~ettentj/chapter3/
Castellano (1986) finds underlying structural variables, such as social stratification, play a role in the development and passage of a restrictive early gun control law, New York’s Sullivan law, in 1911. For example, established residents perceived new immigrants to be responsible for rising crime, which provided an impetus to limit these immigrants’ access to firearms (Castellano, 1986). In addition, these new immigrants were not part of the gun culture and had no political power, thus did not have the will nor capacity to oppose the measure (Castellano, 1986). Castellano also finds that onset of the Progressive Era, with its introduction of social statistics into the legislative arena, caused reformers to want to save the lower class from dangerous urban America and reformers believed curbing access to guns would help in this effort (Castellano, 1986). Despite opposition from representatives of rural areas, the 1911 Sullivan Law passed because it was supported by several powerful people and because of an important pivotal event -- the attempted assassination of the New York City mayor.
http://www.lizmichael.com/racistgc.htm
1911 New York Police choose who can own guns lawfully. "Sullivan
Law" enacted, requiring police permission, via a
permit issued at their discretion, to own a handgun.
Unpopular minorities were and are routinely denied
permits. ("Gun Control: White Man's Law," William R.
Tonso, Reason, December 1985) "(T)here are only about
3,000 permits in New York City, and 25,000 carry
permits. If you're a street-corner grocer in
Manhattan, good luck getting a gun permit. But among
those who have been able to wrangle a precious carry
permit out of the city's bureaucracy are Donald Trump,
Arthur Ochs Sulzburger, William Buckley, Jr., and
David, John, Lawrence and Winthrop Rockefeller.
Surprise." (Terrance Moran, "Racism and the Firearms
Firestorm," Legal Times)
http://www.nthposition.com/americanmafia.php
Side Notes The Previous Sullivan ActIn 1908, New York passed a Sullivan Act that made it illegal for women to smoke in public. The law lasted two weeks.
The Passing of Tim Sullivanhttp://www.crimelibrary.com/gangsters_outlaws/mob_bosses/rothstein/becker_5.html?sect=15
In September 1913 Sullivan disappeared after an all night card game with his guards. A few days later his body was found on the railroad tracks near the Westchester freight yards. An engineer stated that Sullivan was dead before the train ran over his body.
http://politicalgraveyard.com/death/railroad.html
http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=S001061
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