"A Killing Machine": Half of All Mass Shooters Used High-Capacity Magazines
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2013/01/high-capacity-magazines-mass-shootings
In the shooting that injured Rep. Gabby Giffords in Tucson, Arizona, Jared Loughner emptied a 33-round magazine in 30 seconds, killing 6 and injuring 13. Inside a movie theater in Aurora, Colorado, James Holmes used 40- and 100-round magazines to injure and kill an unprecedented 70 victims. At Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, Adam Lanza used high-capacity magazines to fire upwards of 150 bullets as he slaughtered 20 kids and 6 adults.
"It turns a killer into a killing machine," says David Chipman, who served for 25 years as a special agent in the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives. Outlawing high-capacity magazines won't prevent gun crimes from happening, Chipman notes, but might well reduce the carnage: "Maybe 3 kids get killed instead of 20."
So how many children is America willing to sacrifice for the convenience of sports shooters? Honestly, I do not see why these are so essential when they are so lethal.
Went to the linked article and found a few inconsistancies , they say in the article body that JLL used a 33 rnd cap mag , but their data says he used 2 17 rnd mags .
now for my opinion , if JLL had not used the 33 rnd the gun wouldnt have jammed giving the time during reload for the brave unarmed individuals to do what they did ( clearing a jam , takes some practice , thankfully JLL wasnt practiced for this malfunction).
Holmes started out using an AR with the 100 rnd drum it jammed and he discarded the weapon immediately and switched to the shotgun ( which accounted for most of the wounds both lethal and non lethal) .
Lanza according to the article used 15-20 round mags , for over 150 rounds fired , even with the common 20 round mag , thats 8 reloads at his leasure .
Now here is where i will state my opinion , and its from experience I base it . if the individuals whose firearms jammed had been using a mag of lower capasity , the chances of a jam would have been minimized reason i say this is higher cap mags springs either dont have enough tension ( causing a misfeed) or too much tension ( causing a double feed and jam ) and either instances have a possability of happening as ammo is fed out of the mag . a standard 10 round mag , ( or 20 or 30, though ive never seen or heard of a 40) are less likely to have these issues .
Bruce and Mark,
Gentlemen, thanks for your response. (I thought I must have put this blog in some kind of fog.)
The stats are in a mess, all over the place. But perhaps that is because the NRA has pushed laws--through ALEC--that forbid the CDC from gathering gun violence statistics. That should give any NRA member pause.
Mark, you seem to suggest that the large-capacity magazines jam, making them a good choice. As you know, that period when the shooter reloads is the window of opportunity. (Proud of my gender/age over the woman who grabbed the magazine in AZ.) What if it works beautifully as intended and the shooter is able to get off 100 rounds? I still am puzzled as to why a gun sports person could use such magazines; it seems counter to marksmanship when it justt releases a barrage of lead.
I am hoping that we can reach some kind of middle ground between outlawing all guns and doing absolutely nothing on infringement grounds. In our Democratic Republic, we ought to be able to compromise on something we all can live with.