WHY “LARGE CAPACITY MAGAZINES” ARE IMPORTANT

Massad Ayoob

We recently discussed here the Ninth Circuit’s decision that limiting private citizens to a magazine capacity of ten rounds was unconstitutional.

The Court referred to them as LCMs, Large Capacity Magazines. We gun people call them Standard Capacity Magazines since that’s what so many of the firearms in question – handguns, rifles, and even shotguns – were originally designed for.  It continues to amaze me that people whose critical thinking skills are otherwise intact can’t “get it” on this issue.

First, of course, is the utter stupidity of believing that criminals who are prepared to commit murder and face life in prison without possibility of parole, or even capital punishment, will somehow be deterred from breaking a magazine limit law. But let’s look at the common questions of “Why do private citizens need more than ten bullets to defend themselves? And if they do, why can’t they just reload, or carry more guns?”

For one thing, most home defense guns are stored in secure places and not carried on one’s person when at home.  A home invasion can happen in seconds. When you grab the gun, it’s unlikely you’ll have time to grab more ammunition: what’s in it at the start is probably all you’ll have until it’s over, one way or the other.  Do you want the two rounds in a Joe Biden Signature Model double barrel shotgun against three or more armed home invaders?

For another, violent criminals running on adrenaline and often drugs and alcohol can soak up bullet after bullet before they run out of blood or a lucky hit short-circuits their central nervous system.  More bad guys wear body armor today than in the time of John Dillinger: current news shows violent Antifas wearing it openly.  And surgical bullet placement for a single bullet in tense life-or-death circumstances is more the exception than the norm.

Magazine limits have a disproportionate, disparate impact against the elderly and the handicapped.  It’s hard enough for someone in a wheelchair to get to a gun at all, never mind packing spare magazines or extra guns. And how does the wheelchair-bound victim get to cover to reload in any case? I can testify from experience that arthritic hands slow you down, too. How much of a nightmare is it to run out of ammo when you’re trying to save your family from a home invader? This article will give you an example.

If your state has a magazine capacity limit, the recent Ninth Circuit decision cited above offers some hope for the future. If your state allows you to have standard capacity magazines, fight like hell to keep them when, as they eventually will, Prohibitionists attempt to prohibit them.