Free Republic

Over the past several months, at least four out-of-state concealed carry holders were arrested for carrying handguns in New York City. Unbeknownst to these otherwise law-abiding gun owners, NYC has an extremely tough and unforgiving gun control laws. All of these tourists were caught when they naively sought to check their weapons with security (at an airport, at the Empire State Building, at the 9/11 memorial etc.). So, why is NYC so tough on guns? Why do city officials lack commonsense when it comes to applying the law? Well, to answer these questions it might help to take a brief...

Bloomberg and Cuomo come from the jurisdiction where major gun control legislation was established by New York State Democratic Senator Timothy “Big Tim” Sullivan. Sullivan became known as a Tammany Hall crook intent on protecting his mobsters from prosecution and disarming innocent civilians in New York State. The Sullivan Act was passed in 1911 after a murder suicide shooting. The law mandated that New York residents must have police issued licenses for concealed handguns, otherwise it would be considered a felony. In 1903, the Battle of Rivington Street pitted a Jewish gang, the Eastmans, against the Italian Five Pointers. When...

Recent months have seen a former Marine from Indiana, a Tea Party activist from California and a nurse from Tennessee all arrested and charged in New York City for possession of firearms they had legal permits to carry back home. All were “nabbed” when they naively sought to check the weapon with security. These innocents fell afoul of the nation’s toughest gun laws. But few New Yorkers know how those laws came to be. The father of New York gun control was Democratic city pol "Big Tim" Sullivan — a state senator and Tammany Hall crook, a criminal overseer of...

"One loves to possess arms, though they hope never to have occasion for them." -- Thomas Jefferson, to George Washington, June 19, 1796. "After a shooting spree, they always want to take the guns away from the people who didn't do it." -- William S. Burroughs. Big Tim Sullivan was a notorious Irish gangster whose mob controlled New York City south of 14th Street around the turn of the 20th century. Throwing in his lot with the likes of Monk Eastman, Paul Kelly and Arnold Rothstein, Sullivan became an expert on that dark nexus where organized crime and politics consummate...