Should Congress Ban High Capacity Gun Magazines?

February 22, 2011 RSS Feed Print
  • Comment (23)

Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter argued that gun magazines should not exceed 10 bullets; the NRA's Chris Cox wrote that such a ban would lead to innocents being harmed. A sampling of reader comments:

I have two pistols that I routinely carry legally for self-defense. Both of these pistols have magazines higher than 10 rounds. I did not commit a crime using my firearms, so why am I to be punished? The next time someone commits a mass murder with a vehicle, are we going to see pushes for stricter licensing, lower capacity fuel tanks, and walls built around all roads? Remember, mass murder can be committed with five gallons of gasoline and a match, both perfectly legal to own. Change your argument from pistols to cars or word processors or some other legal possession and see if your argument makes sense.

PHILLIP CLEMMER Leesburg, Fla.

Yes, of course the Congress should ban high-volume ammo clips. When all else fails, common sense should prevail.

JIM HALL Vienna, Va.

This proposed ban is nonsense. The assault weapons ban and the 10-round mag ban did nothing to curtail crimes with guns. Notice I did not use the term "gun crimes," because guns by themselves, being inanimate objects, cannot perform any actions or crimes. A person must use the gun in an illegal manner. Every time some evil person uses a gun to perpetuate a tragic event, the gun grabbers and control freaks seize on the incident and exploit the victims' pain for their own twisted agenda.

JOHN FARRAR Mansfield, Texas

After reading Chris Cox's position on large-capacity magazines, it just goes to show how the NRA has helped to create mayhem in this country. I am not opposed to the Second Amendment or the right of citizens to own guns. However, I would like to see the NRA become more responsible in encouraging saner gun use. Large magazines have one purpose, and that's to kill as many people as quickly as possible. To use the lame argument that you would want this capability if you were being attacked shows what little common sense the NRA uses in promoting the abusive use of automatic guns and large-capacity magazines. I would like to know how many cases the NRA knows of where a private citizen had to and successfully used a large-capacity magazine to fend off multiple attackers.

GEORGE MAVROS Lancaster, Pa.

Banning guns, magazines, clips, or cosmetic features has never worked. Never will. There are already millions of magazines in circulation. You can't confiscate them all, and banning further sales will only make them more valuable. If such a law passes or is in the process of being passed, expect the market to be flooded with millions more magazines before it takes effect. The only difference between magazine capacity is about two seconds to change magazines.

JOHN THOMPSON Stoughton, Wis.

Tags:
NRA,
Congress,
gun control and gun rights

Reader Comments Read all comments (23)

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The Assault Weapons Ban of 1993 was a horrible FAILURE,per the United States Law Enforcement Agency known as the F.B.I.

There was no statistical data proving that 10 years of political and regulatory handcuffs on law abiding gun owners did one single thing to stop violent crimes carried out by users of firearms.

In fact, it has been proven, many times, that when there is a strong presence of lawful gun owners in a given area, the violent crime goes DOWN. Yet, The liberal gun grabbers cannot seem to grasp this fact. Even when pummeled in the face with the statistics proving such. Maybe it is because they only want these laws banning "Ordinary" people from being able to protect themselves because "They" (the Elite) certainly are not going to relinquish their security staff who are armed to the fullest. When most of them sleep soundly under the protection of armed thugs, the rest of America is left to fight the wolves with sticks and stones.

Unfortunately,in the world beyond the palace gates, violent crime is a fact. The laws prohibiting a woman from being able to meet an attacker and rapist, sometimes both at the same barbaric home invasion, with a loaded pistol are not only unconstitutional, they are flat out wrong. Maybe if these schools were allowed to have just ONE armed guard, like our lifelong superstar politicians are afforded at the expense of tax payers, they just might be playing sports in place of playing fertilizer.IF these "Regular" children were guarded and deemed "Important enough " like the families and children of the elitist oligarchy of the life long professional political soothsayers who rule over the "Commoner" they may have grown up to cure cancer instead of growing to be a distant memory like a fast ending shadow on a cool summer day.

The Elite must understand,The United States Constitution was written for the "Commoner", to protect the "Average", to ensure that "All Men ARE Created Equal". Not that there are "Special Classes" of individuals who are afforded special protections beyond the law. Such as those who will be armed with "REAL Machine Guns" at night, considering that since 1986 REAL Assault Weapons have been banned from new manufacture, importation and also banned from "AVERAGE person" Transfers. The only ones who are afforded REAL ASSAULT WEAPONS are the ELITE, The Government Rulers,Only those who protect the Elite Life Long Political Kings and Queens can have REAL ASSAULT WEAPONS, considering It has been written into law by our rulers, in 1986, that NO Assault Weapons can enter into the United States,or be manufactured for, or transferred to normal average everyday citizens.

The fact is, Assault Weapons have already been made 100% illegal to own without the most stringent of regulations met at every turn. There has not been an assault weapon used in ANY CRIME in the past decade. The only True Assault Weapon EVER used in a crime in the last 25 years was used by a POLICE OFFICER who was also a HITMAN!go figure

Trace Frederick of TN 2:58AM January 28, 2013

what we should Ban, is a Half Black muslim posing as a Christian who's father was Never and US Citizen and cannot possibly qualify as a "Natural Born" Citizen according to the US Supreme Court ruling in 1875 "Happersett v. Minor" the court concluded "Parents" must be US Citizens,...obamas father was never a US Citizen....

Chief Cabioch of OK 10:41AM July 30, 2012

banning the mags

will make them worth lots of money

cj of PA 10:01PM May 27, 2012

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