In recent years, gun control has been a hot button issue in United States politics and, while several states like New York have been able to push through restrictive and controversial gun control measures, most, if not all, pushes for gun control at the federal level have failed miserably. That hasn’t stopped federal lawmakers from continuing their fight, however. On Thursday, Senators Bob Menendez and Elizabeth Esty, both Democrats, introduced a new piece of legislation that would make it illegal for anyone to manufacture, distribute or possess high-capacity magazines.
They’re calling their bill the Large Capacity Ammunition Feeding Device Act and several activist groups are throwing in their support. One of those groups is the Newtown Action Alliance, a group formed by citizens of Newtown, Connecticut following the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School on December 14, 2012. This group claims that banning high-capacity magazines would save lives, seeing that they have been used in many of the recent mass-shootings, including the one at Sandy Hook.
“We have seen the destruction again and again,” Senator Menendez said recently in a speech introducing his new bill. “And we have seen how lowering magazine size can save lives.”
Many disagree with the notion, however, that magazine capacity restrictions have solved anything in the past. Larry Keane of the National Shooting Sports Foundation recently told news website Guns.com that the last magazine ban did nothing to prevent crime. “We had a federal ban for 10 years and the evidence shows it did nothing to reduce crime,” he said. “The last Congress rejected similar legislation. We see nothing to indicate this Congress, which is even more pro-gun, would consider this highly partisan anti-gun bill”
The magazines that many gun control advocates have been citing with this recent push are the 50 and 100 round drum magazines that are available on the market. However, magazines that come directly from the factory with many popular firearms would also be affected. For example, the Glock model 17 and the Smith & Wesson M&P 9mm, two popular 9mm handguns, both come straight from the factory with flush 17 round magazines.
