No state has shaped American firearms law more directly than New York. The 1911 Sullivan Act became the template that gun control advocates pointed to for a century.

That's not an overstatement. The Sullivan Act is why every other state's may-issue permit system looked the way it did — including the discretionary approval process that the Bruen decision finally knocked down in 2022. If you've ever wondered why your Idaho carry permit gets complicated the moment you try to use it traveling east, the roots go back to a Tammany Hall politician in 1911.

Patriot committees of safety actively disarmed suspected Loyalists across the state, one of the earliest examples in American history of systematic government seizure of privately held firearms based on political affiliation.

People think politicized gun confiscation is a modern invention. It isn't. The Revolutionary period in New York is a reminder that governments — including ones we consider the "good guys" historically — have always been willing to use firearms control as a tool of political consolidation when they felt threatened enough. Something to keep in mind the next time someone tells you that concern is paranoid.

The Remington Rolling Block action was arguably the most produced single-shot military rifle design of the 19th century, and it came out of Ilion, New York.

If you've spent any time hunting or shooting milsurp, you've probably handled a Rolling Block descendant without knowing it. That action was sold to armies on four continents — and the whole thing started because one guy in the Mohawk Valley thought he could forge a better barrel than he could buy. There's something satisfying about that origin story.

The largest city in the country — nearly impossible to get a carry permit in for most of its modern history — sits in the same state as vast rural counties where hunting is a cultural cornerstone and gun ownership rates look more like Wyoming than Manhattan.

This is the tension that makes New York's firearms politics nearly impossible to resolve from the inside. One state, two completely different relationships with firearms — and the urban population density means the rural half has been losing the legislative fight for most of the last century. Idaho doesn't have that problem, but it's worth understanding why some states end up where they do.

For those of you who've traveled to shoot — competition, hunting, or just range trips — what's the most jarring experience you've had running into another state's firearms laws, and did it change how you think about what we have here?

Read the full article in The Handbook → | By The Boise Gun Club Team