I have a new article on Pajamas Media, Plausible, or Propaganda? The ‘High-Capacity Magazine’ Argument. Since it is already a bit (o.k., more than a bit) long, there are a couple of points not in it that I’ll mention here.
One I’ve already mentioned, in the UPDATE to Dumb Democrat: You Couldn’t Make This Up If You Tried: that even though Rep. Diana DeGette (D, Col), the Democrats’ Chief Deputy Whip in the House and lead sponsor of the legislation banning “high capacity” magazines, literally doesn’t know what she’s legislating about (see the post), she seems to know as much as President Obama, who keeps prattling about the “fully automatic weapon” used at Sandy Hook.
Second, I keep putting “high capacity” in quotes because magazines have one thing in common with cans of olives: there seem to be no normal, standard-sized olives/magazines. They range from large through extra-large to giant. A 15 or 17 or 19 round magazine is not a “high capacity” magazine for a semi-automatic pistol. It’s the standard, normal size. And, as I’ve mentioned before, there are no magazines holding less than 10 rounds currently produced for most of the popular semi-automatic handguns in widespread circulation today; requiring them, as New York has attempted to do, would in effect convert those guns into paper weights (at least until the courts struck that provision down as a clear violation of Heller v. District of Columbia).
Heck, as long as we’re both here (you are still here, aren’t you?), let me mention a bonus, third point not in my PJ Media article: a practiced shooter can learn to shoot a revolver almost as fast as most people can shoot a semi-automatic pistol. Consider Ed McGivern, “the fastest gun in the world.”
McGivern, born in 1874 and fascinated by guns from an early age, taught himself to shoot. Although he at first used semi-automatic pistols he soon found he could achieve a faster rate of fire with a factory standard double-action revolver. Ultra-skilled muscles and reflexes proved speedier than recoil operated mechanisms.
As an exhibition shooter McGivern specialized in hitting aerial targets and in hitting two targets — with two revolvers — simultaneously. As his shooting career progressed, so did the complexity of McGivern’s act. As the number of targets grew, so did the need for rapidity of fire, a challenge to which he devoted most of his adult life: just how fast and how straight could a man shoot a handgun? McGivern’s crowning shooting feat as recorded in “The Guiness Book of World Records” took place when he was 58 years old and on tour. Of it, the book says: “The greatest rapid fire feat. Ed McGivern fired two times from 15 feet five shots which could be covered by a half-dollar piece in 45/100’s of a second, August 20, 1932.”
True, most mass murderers are not, thank goodness, Ed McGiverns, and you’re probably thinking that with revolvers that long, vulnerable “pause to reload” that I debunk in my Pajamas article would be real: flipping open the cylinder, dumping the six empty cartridge cases, inserting six new cartridges one at a time, closing the cylinder. Think again. Think speed loaders, invented by God or the ghost of Ed McGivern to allow rapid reloading of revolvers. Using a speed loader, Jerry Miculek may now be faster even than McGivern. Take a look: here, he shoots six rounds on targets, reloads, and shoots another six rounds in under three seconds.
Banning “high capacity” magazines may do more damage than good. It would probably lead many of those intent on doing harm to move from 9mm pistols to the typically more lethal, or more likely to be lethal, .40 or .45 caliber, since the main attraction of the 9mm to such shooters was their higher capacity.
Constitutional issues aside, when it come to magazine size, I am open minded about what — if any — restrictions will optimize the defense by good guys against bad guys. However, it seems clear that the following law can ONLY hurt good guys while doing nothing to stop bad guys:
“The magazines could only be loaded with 10 or fewer rounds, except in their owners’ homes or at a shooting range, where they can be fully loaded.”
An alternitive to speed loaders is reloading revolvers
two rounds at a time. At one point, before two speed loaders became standard belt issue for SOME .357 totin’ law enforcement folk, this was touted. Alas, it actually takes practice, proficiency,a “special” holder on ones belt, and the kind of mental clarity not often found amongst law enforcement and other folk “suddenly” (isn’t it always for the “good guys”?) engaged in any actual exchange where more than two shots are required.
There’s also that matter of all those little empty round brass cylinders “suddenly” underfoot, especially in sub/urban asphalt and concrete surfaces and bouncing off numerous walls in “close quarters”.
Yes, just think if Gabby had been hit by a .40 or .45, much less with a .45 from a Colt Government Model whose origional magazine held only 7 rounds.