The Sullivan Act, John Dos Passos’s “Manhattan Transfer” (1925), and the United States Supreme Court’s Bruen decision

In John Dos Passos's novel "Manhattan Transfer" (1925), unemployed and broke Dutch Robertson, who is about to begin a series of robberies, is warned by his girlfriend Francie about carrying a gun in New York State in the 1920s: “Next thing some cop’ll see it on your hip and arrest you for the Sullivan law.” The Sullivan Act was a New York state law passed in 1911 that required people to apply for licenses "to have and carry concealed a pistol or revolver". But the United States Supreme Court struck down the Sullivan Act as unconstitutional in its 2022 decision in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association, Inc. v. Bruen. (Andrew Shields, #111Words, 5 September 2024)