Because they were easier to fit in his gym bag. You’d think this would be the end of that narrative, but you’d be wrong. New narrative: just think of how many lives were saved because he didn’t use those evil “high-capacity magazines” and “his gun jammed because he had to reload so much.” Even though in the Gifford’s shooting, the killer’s gun jammed because he was using an extended magazine that wasn’t designed for the gun.
Heads I win, tails you lose.
This is a difficult thing to discuss with non-gun people, and even some gun people who aren’t all that knowledgeable. Because it seems “obvious” that allowing fewer rounds in a magazine will reduce gun deaths. In truth there’s no evidence for this. Also, basic tactics would tell you that a magazine restriction disadvantages a defender more than an attacker.
It takes a few seconds to change a magazine. As a defender, I cannot and will not be carrying around a gym bag full of magazines with me all day. Most mass killers do this. Most of them also bring multiple guns to the attack. As a defender, I will carry the magazine that’s in my firearm. Maybe some more hard-core carriers will carry a reload. My likelihood of ever needing one round, let alone more than one, is very very low. But so is the likelihood I’ll ever be in the vicinity of a mass shooting. We don’t carry guns in anticipation of high-probability events, so I don’t want its capacity artificially blocked. The grip of my Glock 19 is designed to hold 15 9mm rounds, and as a defender, that’s what I want it to hold. Telling me I can only have 10 rounds serves merely to put me at a disadvantage to an attacker, who can plan around the restriction.
Cops know this. That’s why they would fight magazine restrictions that affect them tooth and nail. But if cops need them, they should be generally available.
This part of the story seems ridiculous to me.
10 round magazines? You’ve got to look for those specially and pay more for them. Why would a florida guy have any? I do prefer 20 rounders myself because I like the look and weight of them, but 10 rounders?
also what kind of gym bag holds 15 – 30 10 rounders but not 5 – 10 30 rounders?
I don’t get it.
I think it’s quite probable the murderer snapped up some deal offered for multiple buy of 10 shot magazines.
Perhaps the Florida killer was deliberately copying the methods of the Columbine killers? Out of some weirdo worship?
Bad news is that antigun politicians in DC are already prepared to go on offense over this. I read the latest Assault Weapons Ban Bill. It’s an act of prohibition that will make Alcohol Prohibition and the War on Drugs look like a cheap joke.The Cicilline/Feinstein Assault Weapons Ban Bill is the most Anti-Bill of Rights proposal of the last 50 years, by far.
The Bill bans all “transfers” of so called “Assault Weapons” and “High Capacity Magazines”. That means no private sales, or even sanctioned sale-transfers through FFL’s of so called “Assault Weapons and High Capacity Magazines” from the owner to anyone else. It also means that when the owner of them dies, they can’t be sold or willed to someone. Family members won’t be allowed to inherit their deceased family member’s “Assault Weapons and/or High Capacity Magazines”. Upon the death of the owner, the said and so called “Assault Weapon” becomes federally prohibited CONTRABAND! That is exactly what leftist judges on the courts, hostile Democrat Party appointed Bureaucrats, and a Democrat US Attorney General will rule, and rewrite the law that way through non-legislative, judicial, and bureaucratic fiat. There are other areas where this will occur as well. This will also open the door for the Federal Bureaucracy and Judiciary to, through subversion, ILLEGALLY create a National Gun Registry. DOOR-TO-DOOR GUN CONFISCATION coming right up.
Other areas the of the Bill declare any semiautomatic firearm “CAPABLE” of accepting a detachable magazine of more than 10 rounds, and ANY FIREARM with a fixed magazine, OF ANY KIND, over 10 rounds, as an “Assault Weapon”. Upon the death of the owner of those in private possession today, the said and so called “Assault Weapon” become federally prohibited CONTRABAND!……that’s 90% of the Semiautomatic Firearms (long-guns and handguns) out there, and 50% of the Manual Actions as well. That Winchester Model 1892 that accepts 12 rounds of .38 special is now an “Assault Weapon with a High Capacity Magazine” under the Cicilline/Feinstein gun-ban bill.
Also, this Bill bans “Semiautomatic Versions of Automatic Firearms”, and ” facsimiles” of “Assault Weapons”. This means that many firearms listed in the “exemption” portions of the Bill will be banned as “Assault Weapons” by leftist antigun judicial, and bureacratic activists under a Democrat Party Administration. Here is a list of them, those being the Semiautomatic Versions and their automatic counterparts next to one another.
1). All Glock Pistols (Glock 18). Banned!
2) All Beretta M92/96 Pistols (Beretta M93). Banned!
3). All CZ75 Variants (automatic version produced in limited production in the Soviet Union during the late 1970’s through Mid-1980’s). Banned!
4). Ruger Mini 14 (AC.556). Banned!
5). All M1A and Semi-Auto M14 Variants. (Winchester Repeating Arms made the M14S in the early 1960’s, and it is select-fire). Banned!
6). M1 Garand (It has parts commonalities with the Beretta BM-59 and Winchester M14S, and will be declared a facsimile of them both) Banned!
7). All M1 Carbine Variants. (The M2/M3 Carbines, all derived from the M1 Carbine, are full auto). Banned!
8). SKS (The Chinese Type 63 is based off the SKS, and is full auto). Banned!
9). Ares SCR. (Facsimile of the AR15/M16). Banned!
We are in greater jeopardy now than during the 2016 Presidential Election Campaign Season.
Joe, I am suspecting you are being hysterical. Please stop.
Walli – You are suspecting Joe is being hysterical because of his liberal (ha!) use of capital letters and exclamation points? Because of the length of his reply? What suggests to you he is being hysterical?
If you read the entirety of the Feinstein/Cicilline Gun Ban, it would only be fitting to be “hysterical”.
This Country is one election away from having the 2nd Amendment and entire Bill of Rights, wiped out forever.
Go read the Feinstein/Cicilline Assault Weapons Ban. It’s basically a “War on Guns and Gun Owners”.
I’m gonna be dubious here, like I was over at Reynolds’ blog.
I want the NR report to be accurate, but the sourcing is super thin and indirect.
I mean, “a [nameless] state Senator said so” is about as weak as it gets, right?
I won’t jump on it as Definitely True until there’s better evidence than that.
(It also seems odd to me , as it does to Mr. Wright, that anyone would pick 10 rounders for an AR, instead of even 20s, in a state where there’s no mag size restriction, as IIRC Florida us.)
(Contra Joe, above, note that I’m about 99% sure the exemption lists don’t work the way he thinks, and that a “facsimilies of automatic weapons are banned” feature of a bill can’t override a specific exemption list in the same bill, because trying to interpret the law that way makes the law contrdict itself.
And statutory interpretation doesn’t work like that.
If we’re just going to postulate “The Supreme Court will make up anything it wants to ban all guns, or let the Districts do that”, well, then we are already permanently doomed.
Equally, I read the bill, too, and it does not prohibit “grandfathered” guns being sold or inherited – it says they have to go through an FFL to be sold, that’s it.
Hysteria and misreadings are not helpful.
Well, that and nobody thinks the Feinstein mess is going anywhere.)
“Florida state senator Lauren Book revealed.”
Okay, when I first saw it, it was anonymous.
A name improves my confidence in the report significantly.
I am Floridian. There is no magazine restriction.
Yet.
I recently looked up New Jersey statutes on what is a prohibited firearm and what is an allowed firearm in that state. Not surprisingly, the Ruger Mini-14 is on the prohibited list. What I was surprised to discover, however, is that BB guns are qualified as firearms. Yes, BB guns, such as the Red Ryder carbine featured in the movie “A Christmas Story”. My reply does not address the onerous process to become a qualified, legal owner of firearms, only to illustrate that such a restrictive list already exists for New Jersey residents.
NJ law has been like that at least since early 70’s.
I grew up there, my dad had to get a firearms ID card to get me a spring powered bb gun when I was a kid.
I got arrested 2 weeks after turning 18 (fall of 1989) for having a Crossman pump B.B. gun without a FOID card. I graduated High school that spring and left the state for college and have rarely returned.
In California, a long bow is a firearm with respect to doing target shooting city limits, or at least that’s what Rohnert Part Dept. of Public Safety told me. Cannot find it in statute.
Well shades of effing Columbine!
http://murderpedia.org/male.H/h/harris-eric-weapons.htm
Despite the hysteria from the News Media at the time (including in particular Mr. Objective Journalist hisself, Jake Tapper) which hyper-focused on the Intratec DC-9 pistol and large magazines, the real weapon of death at Columbine was a 10 shot carbine.
Most of the rounds fired at Columbine were from a Hi-Point 9mm self-loading carbine. A firearm specifically designed to comply with the 1994 Federal Assault Weapon Ban, and which never had available for it any magazine larger than 10 shot capacity. That was the weapon of the primary psycho at Columbine, who carried a bag full of 10 round magazines to feed it.
More and more the details of this crime don’t fit the anti-gun narrative preferred by the anti-gun cult.
Perhaps the killer wanted to carry his AR in his gym bag with a magazine installed. Certainly easier to do with a 10-rd magazine vs. a 30-rd magazine.
There was a terrorist incident within the past couple of years in which the perpetrator used a motor vehicle and then jumped out and tried to stab people with a knife. This led to a renewed call for GUN CONTROL from the usual sources. Their argument being ‘imagine how much worse it would’ve been if
he had a firearm.’
I would like to wait until there’s firmer sources than what the Miami Herald is quoting (which NRO is quoting).
This is a “too good to be true” and a bit of patience can serve well.
Consider an extension of the 48 hour rule.
I recently had an epiphany regarding the issue over standard capacity magazines and why the Left believes low capacity magazines are better in mass shootings.
It is because they see every round in the magazine as a death. To them when they hear “30 round magazine” they think “30 dead kids”. 10 rounds to them means less harm.
They, of course, have no idea it is meaningless and explaining magazine changes to them is pointless. They aren’t interested in firearm technical details, only belief. They are fixated on a simplistic number and they believe capacity = death. So lower capacity must mean less death.
A small realization and perhaps not original but it does help explain and understand the mentality on the other side.
“the mentality on the other side.” I think mentality is giving them excessive credit.