BANNING NEW YORK’S ASSAULT WEAPONS (1926)
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Back during the Roaring ’20s, there was an assault weapon on every corner – or at least that was how it seemed.
New York began to see the widespread use during these years of “Tommy” guns (machine guns), and sawed-off shotguns, which were freely available and useful in committing the crimes that joined the Mafia and Prohibition at the hip.
A manager in the gun department of “one of the most conservative and long-established sporting goods stores” in New York City, Schoverling, Daly & Gales, noted that these types of weapons were sold without the necessity of a permit.
“Although any well-established and reliable concern would take the same precautions that we do to see that these weapons do not get into the wrong hands, there are hundreds of fly-by-night small stores throughout the city where these things are sold without a permit and without any precaution except to get the price,” noted this gun salesman.
Officials of the time were clearly aiming at protecting the public with their proposed weapons bans of the period, especially where it involved “inter-gang warring.”
“The light Thompson sub-automatic…can be had in a number of stores on payment of the price – $500,” said the Brooklyn Daily Eagle. “A citizen who wishes to have a pistol in his house for protection against holdup men must, however, obtain a permit under the provisions of the Sullivan law against ‘concealed’ weapons.”
The problem the police had in protecting the public was the weapons that they had at their disposal, which were not powerful enough to compete with the force of machine guns and sawed off shotguns in the hands of criminal gangs. Thus, calls for placing machine guns into the hands of our police forces began to be issued in greater numbers.
It wasn’t until 1934, after Prohibition ended, that the National Firearms Act was enacted by Congress, mandating the registration of firearms.
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