Gun Control Post-Tucson: Extended Clips

Run time: 01:47 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wij7G2ro6Vs   Posted on YouTube: July 25, 2011 By YouTube Member: MainStreetInsider Views on YouTube: 2   Posted on DU: July 25, 2011 By DU Member: Rusty5329 Views on DU: 968

 
The tragic shootings in Tucson ended only after the assailant, Jared Loughner, paused his gunfire to reload. It was at that moment that people in the area managed to disarm him. He had fired over 30 shots in about 15 seconds, killing six and wounding several others.

These events sparked anew the debate over high-capacity ammunition clips, once outlawed as part of the assault weapons ban. This proposal from Congresswoman Carolyn McCarthy has emerged as the foremost response championed by gun control advocates.

More info at http://www.mainstreetinsider.org/90secondsummaries/?p=413

grr

The 1994 AWB probably could have been safely extended, as it only banned the manufacture of new large-capacity magazines.

This proposed law does not only that, but criminalizes the possession of any of the millions (possibly tens of millions?) of high-cap mags already in circulation.


The question of reloading time in Loughner's case, is whether the weapon jammed. The magazine he used was meant for the Glock 18, a machine pistol. Not the pistol he used it in. In the world, one single special forces element of one military uses it, because while it offers certain advantages, it is extremely prone to jamming and failure to feed. In order to lift the heavier stack of rounds into the firing chamber, the spring has to be several times stronger than the 'normal' capacity magazine. This can lead to the floor plate blowing out, dumping all your ammo on the ground, a round getting stuck in the feed ramp, or difficulty removing the magazine, to insert a new one.

Cho, at Virginia Tech, was able to reload normal capacity magazines at least 10 times. Why the assumption that Loughner couldn't? Why was Loughner unable to perform a function that takes between one, and one and a half seconds to complete? More detail would be nice, if some plan on implementing policy changes based upon this one event.

The video is not new and any discussion of it has pretty well died out.

and standard capacity magazines are far less likely to jam then extended magazines.

Here's a video that show how long it takes an average shooter to change magazines:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=goV-Y5eu2ro

And this video shows how fast an expert can swap magazines:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CAFxgQmxbGI&NR=1&feature=fvwp