New York City- Another Day, Another Murder

This morning (12/04/24) I read that United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson had been shot and killed while standing outside the New York Hilton Midtown hotel. New York City’s police commissioner stated that it was a, “brazen, targeted attack”.  He was one of the latest victims of another murder in the city.

Murder in gun-controlled New York City

My initial thought was the report couldn’t possibly be true because the Sullivan Act, passed in 1911, has essentially made it illegal to have a handgun in New York City. Surely, with handgun possession being illegal (except for former police officers and anyone with connections) for over 100 years, no handgun crimes are committed within city’s five boroughs.

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Although gun control advocates would have you believe such a fairy tale, the reality, as demonstrated again by this morning’s shooting, is that gun control is ineffective at controlling crime. Its sole function is to make it difficult or impossible for law abiding citizens to own guns.

Although many gun control laws were created by misguided do-gooders, others have a more devious origin. The ultimate irony of the Sullivan Act is that it was created to protect criminals, not law-abiding citizens. During the waning years of the 19^th century. Irish immigrants and first-generation Irish Americans largely controlled “Tammany Hall”, headquarters of the city’s corrupt Democratic party.

Like many of his Tammany Hall colleagues, Tim Sullivan turned to politics as a means of expanding the scope of his illegal activities. Concurrent with Sullivan’s rise to power, a wave of Italian immigrants, many of whom brought Mafia connections with them, flooded the city. Ethnic diversity being unheard of at the time, the reigning Irish/American criminals saw newly arrived Mafia types as competition, and the average Italian immigrant as s welcomed their newly arrived Italian counterparts into the fold. Instead, they saw the Mafia types as competition and the immigrant population as a field of victims as an additional source of potential victims.

The advent of Italian immigrants with guns seriously altered New York City’s criminal landscape. Instead of being able to run their illegal operations without challenge, Sullivan and his cronies had to confront the fact that an arduous day of racketeering would likely be interrupted by Italian competition or potential victims pulling guns to defend themselves.

Sullivan became a state senator and pushed through the Sullivan Act, a law that required gun owners to have permits while empowering local authorities to issue or deny gun ownership permits at their own discretion Although the law is applicable throughout the state, New York City has applied it in its most restrictive form.

Murder despite gun laws

To little effect. Criminals have historically ignored the Sullivan Act (surprise) and continue to do so. According to New York Police Department statistics, through the first 48 weeks of 2024, NYC has had 1,026 shooting victims. That compares to 1,063 for the same period in 2023. During that same 2024 time frame, there were 1,601 rapes, 15,241 robberies, 27,174 felony assaults,11,912 burglaries and 44,855 cases of grand larcenies. Statistics don’t list the number of times guns were present but not fired during the commission of various crimes. But it’s reasonable to assume that guns were used to intimidate victims during a high percentage of most crimes; criminals always have guns and gun control laws do not change that.

New York City isn’t unique as a city with strict gun laws and high crime rates. During the first 48 weeks of 2024, Chicago Police Department statistics list 2,161 shooting incidents and 533 murders. Yet when you dig into crime data, oppressive gun control laws or the lack thereof have nothing to do with the amount of gun-related crime committed in urban areas. That’s because crime is a cultural issue, not a gun control issue.

Even in cities that make the top 10 list for high crime rates, the entire city isn’t a killing field. That distinction is earned only by individual neighborhoods. According to data compiled by the Property Club, “On average, Chicago is about 67% more dangerous than the US average. Both violent and property crimes are a problem in the city, with a high incidence of gun violence.” Yet the high rate of violent crime occurs in only 12 of Chicago’s 178 official neighborhoods.

Similarly in New York City with 339 official neighborhoods, The Property Club has labeled Hunts Point in the Bronx (where your chances of being a victim are 1 in 22) as the most dangerous neighborhood in the city and identified 11 other neighborhoods where crime rates are exponentially higher than in other parts of the city.

Another day, another murder

The murder of Brian Thompson will ultimately be added to the city’s crime database, but it will stand apart from the other murders listed in the 2024 database. It wasn’t committed in a high crime area nor was it random. But this murder does have one thing in common with those committed in the city’s high crime neighborhoods. It was not prevented by a gun control ordinance that has been on the books for over 100 years.

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This article was cross posted with Dave’s Substack.

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