New York
Permanent URL for this collectionhttps://dspace.firearmsresearchcenter.org/id/frc0001/4715
New York
This jurisdictional hub aggregates FRC holdings related to New York. It supports research on the state’s firearms history, technology, law, policy, and culture from Dutch and British colonial periods through statehood to the present.
- Legal sources: statutes and session laws, administrative code and registers, attorney general opinions, appellate decisions, and select municipal ordinances.
- Historical materials: newspapers, photographs, maps, catalogs, armory and manufacturing records, maritime and law-enforcement archives, and oral histories tied to New York people and places.
- Research outputs: technical reports, academic studies, training manuals, and curated datasets relevant to the state.
Cite the Firearms Research Center and the item’s handle/DOI when using materials. Rights and licensing vary by item.
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Item type:Item, Laws, Statutes, Ordinances, and Constitutions 39-40 (John Holt ed., 1763)(1763)Limits gunpowder stored within New York City, requires excess powder to be kept in licensed public magazines, regulates storage, transport, fees, and inspections, and imposes fines for violations to reduce fire and explosion risks.Item type:Item, 1792 N.Y. Laws 227(1786)Defined the New York militia as "every able- bodied male person, being a citizen of this state, or of any of the United States, and residing in this state (except such persons as are herein after excepted) and who are of the age of sixteen, and under the age of forty-five years." The arms were "a good musket or firelock," 24 bullets, "a sufficient bayonet" and other standard items."Item type:Item, 1886 N.Y. Laws 94(1778)Established "a night watch in the counties of Ulster, Tryon,Charlotte, Dutchess, and Albany." Service on the watch was required of "every able bodied male inhabitant, Indians and slaves excepted…from sixteen years of age till sixty."Item type:Item, E.B. O'Callaghan, Laws and Ordinances of New Netherland, 1638-1674, at 205 (1868); N.Y. Col. MSS, VI 207, XVI 62(1665)Ordinance Of The Director General And Council Of New Netherland To Prevent Firing Of Guns, Planting May Poles And Other Irregularities Within This Province: The director General and Council expressly forbid from this time forth all firing of Guns . . .on a penalty of 12 guilders for the first offense; double for the second offense, and for the third an arbitrary correction . . .Item type:Item, 1792 N.Y. Laws 227(1786)Defined the New York militia as "every able- bodied male person, being a citizen of this state, or of any of the United States, and residing in this state (except such persons as are herein after excepted) and who are of the age of sixteen, and under the age of forty-five years." The arms were "a good musket or firelock," 24 bullets, "a sufficient bayonet" and other standard items."Item type:Item, 1886 N.Y. Laws 232(1780)Required "all the male inhabitants (slaves excepted) of the age of sixteen years and upwards" to provide themselves with "a good musket or firelock" plus seventeen rounds of ammunition.Item type:Item, "The Man Trap," The Buffalo Commercial, Nov. 1, 1870(1870)Referenced prohibition on the use of "infernal machines."Item type:Item, 9 Statutes at Large of the State of New York 188 (1875)(1874)Ch. 721, § 3: No person shall at any time kill any wild duck, goose are or brant, with any device or instrument known as a swivel or punt gun, or with any gun other than such guns as are habitually raised at arms length and fired from the shoulder, or shall use any net, device or instrument, or gun other than such gun as aforesaid with intent to capture or kill any such wild duck, goose or brant under a penalty of one hundred dollars.Item type:Item, 1849 N.Y. Laws 403(1849)Ch. 278, § 1: Prohibited the manufacture, sale, giving, or disposing of any instrument or weapon usually known as a slungshot, and prohibited the carrying any slungshot or similar weapon. Violators guilty of misdemeanor, punishable by fine not less than two hundred and fifty, nor over five hundred dollars, or imprisonment not less than six months, nor over two years.Item type:Item, 1866 N.Y. Laws 1523(1866)Ch. 716, § 1: Prohibited using, attempting to use, concealing, or possessing a slungshot, billy, sandclub or metal knuckles, and any dirk or dagger, or sword cane or air-gun. Punishable by imprisonment for up to one year and/or a fine up to five hundred dollars.Item type:Item, 1792 N.Y. Laws 191(1792)Prohibited storing of gun powder beyond twenty-eight pounds in weight in one location. Violators fined fifty pounds for every "hundred weight" of powder overstocked. Note: The law was passed in 1788, not 1792.Item type:Item, 1786 N.Y. Laws 220(1786)An Act to Regulate the Militia, ch. 25: That every citizen so enroled [sic] and notified shall within three months thereafter provide himself at his own expence with a good musket or firelock, a sufficient bayonet and belt[,] a pouch with a box therein to contain not less than twenty four cartridges suited to the bore of his musket or firelock, each cartridge containing a proper quantity of powder and ball, two spare flints, a blanket and knapsack[.]Item type:Item, The Colonial Laws of New York from the Year 1664 to the Revolution 40-41 (1894)(1680)Prohibited the giving or selling to, or bartering with, "any Indian," or repairing guns and ammunition of "any Indian," punishable by fine.Item type:Item, N.Y. Const. art. XL (April 20, 1777)(1777)This convention therefore, in the name and by the authority of the good people of this State, doth ordain, determine and declare, that the militia of this State, at all times hereafter, as well in peace as in war, shall be armed and disciplined, and in readiness for service. That all such of the inhabitants of this State, being of the people called Quakers, as from scruples of conscience may be averse to the bearing of arms, be therefrom excused by the legislature; and do pay to the State such sums of money in lieu of their personal service, as the same may, in the judgment of the legislature, be worth: And that a proper magazine of warlike stores, proportionate to the number of inhabitants, be forever hereafter at the expense of this State, and by acts of the legislature, established, maintained, and continued in every county in this State.Item type:Item, 1752 N.Y. Laws 199(1730)Ch. 560, § 20: Prohibited slaves from having or using any gun, pistol, sword, club, or any other kind of weapon. Violators punished by up to twenty lashes.Item type:Item, 1784 N.Y. Laws 627(1784)An Act to Prevent the Danger Arising from the Pernicious Practice of Lodging Gun Powder in Dwelling Houses, Stores, or Other Places within Certain Parts of the City of New York, or on Board of Vessels within the Harbour Thereof, ch. 28: It shall not be lawful [sic] for any merchant, shopkeeper, or retailer, or any other person, or persons whatsoever, to have or keep any quantity of gun powder exceeding twenty-eight pounds weight, in any one place, less than one mile to the northward of the city hall of the said city, except in the public magazine at the Fresh-water, and the said quantity of twenty-eight pounds weight, which shall be lawfull [sic] for any person to have and keep at any place within this city, shall be seperated [sic] into four stone jugs or tine canisters, which shall not contain more than seven pounds each, on pain of forfeiting all such gunpowder,Item type:Item, 6 Documents Relative To The Colonial History Of The State Of New-York 316 (1855)(1744)forbid the exportation of gunpowderItem type:Item, Acts of Assembly, Passed in the Province of New York, From 1691, to 1718, at 144 (1719)(1712)"An Act for Preventing, Suppressing, and Punishing the Conspiracy and Insurrection of Negroes, and other Slaves": Prohibition on "any Negro, Indian, Mulatto Slave" from having or using any gun or pistol outside of their master's presence.Item type:Item, 1802 N.Y. Laws 41-42(1785)Ch. 81: Whereas great dangers have arisen, and mischief been done by the pernicious practice of firing guns, pistols, rockets, squibs, and other fire-works, on the eve of the last day of December, and first and second days of January: For prevention whereof for the future: Be it enacted by the People of the State of New York, represented in the Senate and Assembly, and it is hereby enacted by the authority of the same, that if any person or persons whomsoever, shall fire or discharge any gun, pistol, rocket, squib or other fire-work, within a quarter of a mile of any building, on the said eve or days before mentioned, every such person or persons so offending and being thereof convicted before any justice of the peace of the city or county where such offense shall be committed, either by the confession of the party or parties so offending, or the oath of any one credible witness, shall for every such offence, forfeit the sum of forty shillingsItem type:Item, 1 Colonial laws of New York from the Year 1664 to the Revolution 49-50 (1894)(1665)"Besides the Generall stock of each Town Every Male within this Government from Sixteen to Sixty years of age, or not freed by public Allowance, shall if freeholders at their own , if sons or Servants at their Parents and Masters Charge and Cost, be furnished from time to time and so Continue well furnished with Armes and other Suitable provition hereafter mentioned: under the penalty of five Shillings for the least default therein Namely a good Serviceable Gun, allowed Sufficient by his Military Officer to be kept in Constant fitness for present Service, with a good sword bandeleers or horne or worme a Scowerer a priming wire Shott Badge and Charger one pound of good powder, four pounds of Pistol bullets or twenty four bullets fitted to the gunne , four fathom of Serviceable Match for match lock gunn four good flints fitted for a fire lock gunn..."