Following Governor Christie’s veto on the magazine ban capacity in NJ, our dear Opposition is back again with the ten round wailing and how that helps. Of course, you ask them to present the study where it shows why ten rounds is OK but not eleven or nine and they kinda look at you, blink hard and stutter as ten was always a number brought forward for no logical reason and whomever came up with it way back in the Clinton Administration is unknown.
Magazine capacity has never been the issue, only an excuse to make gun ownership eventually impossible. A dedicated shooter can create havoc with a humble six-shot revolver as it has happened before (You can read about the Rio School Shooting part one and part two) but I bet you never heard about it.
Zero is the only number they will accept. Unfortunately for them in terms of reality (how many millions of plus-10 mags are now safely floating around the country) and political expediency (Colorado recalls still hurt) and mass shootings perpetrated with 10 round or even less capacity (Navy Yard or Elliot Rodger) show that restricting the magazine capacity does nothing for their stated goal of 0% crime and 0% Mass Shooting/School Shootings/Whatever new definition they come up that day. But it makes for good fund-raising noise since most of them are not sucking from Bloomberg’s udder.
Did they even have 30 round mags in Columbine? I’m guessing no, since it was 1999.
The Hi Point Carbine? Doubt it. And a 30 rounder for a Tec 9? Maybe, but I never heard of any being found at the scene so probably a 15 rounder
If I recall, 1 actually managed to get old 30 round mags (or 32 or 33 or something like that) and the other just carried more 10 round mags. Both used each to equal “effectiveness”, to use the word coldly.
You know, when I think about it, I come to the conclusion that if we *do* have magazine size restrictions, they should be a minimum, not a maximum.
Walking up behind someone in the street, pressing a gun to their head, pulling the trigger, murdering them, and walking away takes only one shot.
Defending yourself from a dangerous gunman can take several shots, since you’re not going to hit with every one(like the assassin above will), and you need to stop the threat quickly as opposed to eventually(as the assassin above needs to)
Since a single shot is more applicable for committing a crime than stopping one, if we actually want to cut down on crime, we should be pushing for larger, higher-capacity weapons, not lower.
An excellent comment, and well reasoned. I am just sorry I didn’t come up with it.
May I use it in the future?
By all means.
When I lived in the St. Paul area, there was a talk show guy that when someone made a claim with no source would play a sound clip of a guy saying, “We don’t KNOW that!”.
So after about a five second search, I find this,
“The truth of the matter, which search warrants from state prosecutors last week confirmed, was that 154 bullets were fired in less than five minutes, killing 20 children and six educators.
Hockley and other family members said in the time it took the gunman to reload, 11 children escaped. That detail was not included in the documents from state prosecutors, but that was the understanding of family members.”
http://www.ctnewsjunkie.com/archives/entry/newtown_parents_high_capacity_magazines_are_most_dangerous_part_of_an_assau/
An understanding with no data equals making stuff up. Then of course, we have this little tidbit,
“Police recovered 154 spent .223 shell casings from the school. They also found six additional 30-round magazines for the Bushmaster rifle. Three were empty, and the others were partially loaded.”
http://www.ctnewsjunkie.com/archives/entry/newtown_gunman_had_swords_guns_ammunition/
So Lanza actually limited his own magazine size by changing before they were empty with most of the magazines he used. We don’t know what he limited the size to.
and was a crappy shooter, Thank God. 30 casualties in total and an expenditure of 154 rounds. 5.1 rounds of .223 per victim
He was also a sicko who shot most of his victims several times, much to the emotional distress of emergency workers who arrived on-scene.
Not to go into foil-hat territory, but I’m among the crowd who suspect he may have been influenced or aided by shady individuals with connections to anti-gun groups.
Of course he was influenced by shady people with ties to anti-gun groups. He lived in a Democrat-dominated state, right?
I was referring more to the guys in the black suits with the black sunglasses, but you do have a point.
Hey now not all of us from CT are like that.
There is also the detail that supposedly most if not all of the children were killed in one classroom. I have read people speculate it was basically him firing in to a huddle of kids. It wouldn’t have mattered what he used at that point the results would have been the same.
Unfortunately too many people get caught up in the emotional distress and discomfort of the issue to think about what actually happened and how to come to the same inevitable conclusion.
A co worker of mine, who is a father of a child that age, made an observation. He said being that his daughter is in that age range and he sees many children in that age range because of her school and play dates etc he says he knows with confidence that most of the kids probably had to real idea what was going on at the time. To that end he says lanza probably could have used a machete or blunt instrument to equal if not more gruesome effect.
You change mags when moving from location to location when there is nothing to shoot at. Just as you shift gears when convenient not at any preset RPM.
In Lanza’s case (and same for many of these idiots) they change because they manage to jam the gun.
Yes, I’ve noticed that. It almost seems like the fact that many of these guys choose AR-15’s makes things end quicker. If you don’t know what you’re doing when you get an AR and you just don’t clean or lube it and take it to the scene dry you’re gonna get malfunctions.
When I was a child a German nut case invaded a (W. German) school shouting that he was Hitler and killed many children and teachers…with a flame thrower