Scott Martelle (WTF is going on with the people with that name?)  penned an opinion piece for the LA Times that the Miami Herald dutifully regurgitated in its pages (also cheaper than actually paying a salary to somebody)

I am just going to quote the top and the end of his article:

As bad as the pace and scope of the nation’s mass shootings have become, with death tallies sometimes counted in the dozens, chances are good that they are only going to get worse.
And you can blame gun manufacturers and firearms enthusiasts who are driving a market for ever-larger high-capacity gun magazines.

and

Congress did prohibit outsize magazines and assault weapons in 1994 as part of a sweeping anti-crime bill. But lawmakers let those provisions expire in 2004, and Congress has refused to renew or revive them ever since.

The biggest advertiser who helped push “larger gun magazines” was the Federal government, not the manufacturers. It was Clinton and Congress passing the Assault Weapons Ban (notice how Mr. Martelle does not use AWB but only mentions the “sweeping anti-crime bill.”) He does not mention that even though no new “High Cap” magazines were manufactured during that 10 year ban, the manufacturers went into crazy production schedules to the point that albeit expensive, the market was never without those magazines. Martelle also fails to mention  when that law reached its sunset and it was possible to partake into buying the magazines that were designed to go with these weapons, people changed their shopping strategies and no longer bought a gun with a spare magazine, but the new normal became to have at least 5 extra magazines per firearm owned and that led to many companies opening up for business and providing the demand.

But you know what really drove the market for people to buy big magazines by the truckloads one the prohibition was lifted? The insult that the government had no problem buying the “large magazines” for themselves during that time and rubbing it in our faces by stamping them like this:

“Restricted Military/Gov’t/Law Enforcement/Export use only.”

And the last insult was that the Government had no problem selling the magazines to some corrupt foreign entity who would probably either use them against its people or sell it to the local organized crime enterprises. But selling them to Law Abiding Joe Schmoe? Hell no!

So dear Mr Martelle, it is not the manufacturers “pushing” from large magazines, the pushing was done by the Government and it was so powerful 15 years later still drives the business. Of course, drivel like yours also gives sales a little push. I may need a couple of mags myself now that I think about it.

Hat Tip Mike V