History of 1911 law tossed

The Empire State gun law struck down by the Supreme Court on Thursday was enacted more than 100 years ago as a way to combat runaway gun violence plaguing the Big Apple at the time.

The Sullivan Act, named for New York City pol and Tammany Hall state Sen. Timothy D. “Big Tim” Sullivan, was introduced and passed in 1911 in the wake of a notorious Gramercy Park murder-suicide and other shocking gun-related crimes.

The law, which helped influence gun-control legislation in the US for decades to come, outlawed the carrying of concealed weapons without a police-issued permit.

The bill came in the wake of several high-profile shootings in the region, including the Aug. 9, 1910, shooting of New York City Mayor William Gaynor, who was shot and wounded while posing for a photograph on a Hoboken pier, according to a 2019 academic paper on the law by Montana State University.

Gaynor recovered, but the incident helped build momentum for gun reform.

On Jan. 23, 1911, city novelist David Graham Phillips was shot and killed.

Once enacted, the law set stringent guidelines for obtaining a gun permit.

The law remained on the books and survived despite periodic legal challenges.

Then last year, two members of the New York State Rifle & Pistol Association filed a new legal challenge to the ancient legislation.

Brandon Koch and Robert Nash argued in court that they are law-abiding citizens entitled to unrestricted licenses to carry a handgun under the Second Amendment of the Constitution — with the case making it all the way to the US Supreme Court.