Subject: Manufacturing, Inspection and Sale of Gunpowder and Firearms

Ordinances of the City of New York, § 455. No person shall manufacture, have, keep, sell, or give away any gunpowder, blasting powder, gun-cotton, niro-glycerine, dualin, or any explosive oils or compounds, within the corporate limits of the city of New York, except in the quantities limited, in the manner, and upon the conditions herein provided, and under such regulations as the board of fire commissioners shall prescribe : and said board shall make suitable provision for the storage and safe keeping of gunpowder and other dangerous and explosive compounds or articles enumerated under this title, beyond the interior line of low water-mark in the city and county of New York. The said board may issue licenses to persons desiring to sell gunpowder or any of the articles mentioned under this section at retail, at a particular place in said city to be named in said license (provided that the same shall not be in a building used in any part thereof as a dwelling unless specially authorized by said license), and persons so licensed may on their premises, if actually kept for sale, persons so licensed may have on their premises, if actually kept for sale, a quantity not exceeding at any one time, of nitro-glycerine, five pounds; of gun-cotton, five pounds of gunpowder, fourteen pounds; blasting powder, twenty-five pounds. . .

Every person who makes or keeps gunpowder or saltpeter within any city or village, and every person who carries gunpowder through the streets thereof, in any quantity or manner such as is prohibited by law, or by any ordinance of such city or village, is guilty of a misdemeanor.

Every person guilty of making or keeping gunpowder or saltpeter within any city or village, in any quantity of manner such as is prohibited by law or by any ordinance of said city or village, in consequence whereof any explosion occurs whereby any human being is killed, is guilty of manslaughter in the second degree.

Chapter XXVIII Violations of the License Laws by Insurance and Other Companies, Emigrant Agents, owners or shows, etc., Persons Selling Pistols, etc. §490. No person or corporation within the limits of this State shall sell or offer for sale any pistol, rifle, cartridge or pistol cartridge less than .45 caliber, or metal knuckles, without first obtaining a license from the county in which such person or corporation is doing business so to do. The County Board of Commissioners of the several Counties of this State are authorized to issue licenses in their respective Counties for the sale of pistols and pistol and rifle cartridges of less than .45 caliber, and metal knuckles, upon the payment to the County Treasurer by the person or corporation so applying for said license of the sum of twenty-five dollars annually; and any person who shall sell or offer for sale any pistol, or pistol or rifle cartridge of less than .45 caliber, or metal knuckles, without having obtained the license provided in this Section shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and on conviction shall be punished by a fine not exceeding five hundred dollars, or by imprisonment not exceeding one year, or both, at the discretion of the court.

The council of the city or village may provide by ordinance for licensing all exhibiters of shows or performances of any kind, not prohibited by law, hawkers, peddlers, auctioneers of horses and other animals on the highways or public grounds of the corporation, venders [sic] of gun powder and other explosives, taverns and houses of public entertainment, and hucksters in the public streets or markets, and in granting such license, may extract and receive such sum of money as it may think reasonable[.]

Ordinances of La Crosse, An Ordinance to Provide for Licensing Vendors of Gunpowder and Other Explosive Substances and to Regulate the Storing, Keeping and Conveying of all Dangerous and Explosive Materials and Substances within the City of La Crosse, and in relation to the Storage and Sale of Lime Therein, § 1. It shall be unlawful for any person to keep for sale, sell or give away any gunpowder, giant powder, nitro-glycerine, gun-cotton, dynamite or any other explosive substance of like nature or use without having first obtained a license therefor from the city of La Crosse in the manner hereinafter provided. Any person convicted of a violation of this section shall be punished by a fine of twenty-five dollars for each offense. . . § 3. It shall be unlawful for any person licensed pursuant to the foregoing sections of this ordinance to have or keep at his or her place of business an amount of gunpowder or other explosive material greater in the aggregate than fifty pounds at any one time, or to keep the same in any other than cases or canisters made of tin, or other metal holding not to exceed ten pounds each. Such gunpowder or other explosive materials shall be kept in places remote from fires and lighted lamps or candles, and where the same may be easily accessible so as to be removed in case of fire. No person shall sell any gunpowder or other explosive material after the lighting of lamps in the evening unless in sealed canisters or cases; and all places where business is carried on under any such license shall have a sign put up in a conspicuous place at or near the front door thereof with the word “gunpowder” painted thereon in large letters. Any person violating any provision of this section shall, upon conviction, be punished by a fine of not less than five dollars nor more than fifty dollars for each offense; and upon any such conviction the common council may at its discretion by resolution duly passed revoke the license of the person so convicted. This ordinance shall not be construed as to prevent persons who are not vendors of the articles mentioned in the title thereof from keeping gunpowder in quantities not exceeding one pound for their own use.

That no person or persons or corporations shall after the passage of this act, be permitted within this state to erect, have or maintain, or cause to be erected, had or maintained any establishment, storehouse or building in which in which shall be manufactured, stored or kept any gun powder, blasting powder, dualin, dynamite, forcite, giant powder, nitro-glycerine, or any powder or materials of which nitro-glycerine is an essential ingredient or forms a component part, or any other explosive within the distance of one thousand feet from any public road; and every person or corporation offending against the provisions of this act shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and, on conviction thereof, shall be liable to a fine not exceeding two thousand dollars[.]

§ 1. Every person who shall knowingly deliver or cause to be delivered to any person or carrier any box, can or other package of nitro-glycerine, gunpowder, naptha or other equally explosive material, not marked with a plain and legible label describing its contents, or who shall remove or cause to be removed any such label or mark shall be fined not more than ten thousand dollars or imprisoned not more than five years.

Carrying Weapons, § 1909. Any person who shall sell, barter or exchange, or otherwise dispose of, or in any manner furnish to any person, any dirk or bowie knife, or a sword or spear in a cane, brass or metal knucks, or any pistol of any kind whatever, except such as are used in the army or navy of the United States, and known as the navy pistol or any kind of cartridges for any pistol, or any person who shall keep any such arms or cartridges for sale, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor.

The Municipal Council shall provide by ordinance, for the payment into a “Fireman’s Charitable Fund” of such city, or city and county, of all moneys received for licenses for the storage, manufacture, or sale of gunpowder, blasting powder, gun cotton, fireworks, nitro-glycerine, dualine, or any explosive oils or compounds, or as a municipal tax upon the same; also all fines collected in the police court for violations of fire ordinances.