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From the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence:

Fiancée Of Slain Giffords Staffer Visiting Capitol to Endorse Ban On Large Capacity Magazines

Kelly O’Brien, fiancée of the Congressional staffer who was killed in this year’s shooting rampage in Tucson, AZ, will be in Washington D.C. on April 12 to endorse the bills to ban large-capacity ammunition magazines.

O’Brien will be joined by bill sponsors Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) and Rep. Carolyn McCarthy (D-NY). O’Brien shares much in common with Rep. McCarthy – both are nurses who became activists in Washington D.C. after shooters with large-capacity ammunition magazines took the lives of their partners. The women now are working together with Sen. Lautenberg and more than 100 co-sponsors to urge members of Congress and the public to support legislation to reduce gun violence in America.

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» Click here to read about H.R. 308/S. 32

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Shortly after 19 people, including Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, were shot outside a Tucson, Arizona grocery store with a handgun equipped with a large capacity ammunition magazine, Rep. Carolyn McCarthy and Sen. Frank Lautenberg introduced H.R. 308/S. 32, the Large Capacity Ammunition Feeding Device Act, in the 112th Congress, to prohibit civilian possession of these military style magazines.

The Brady Campaign strongly supports this legislation.

The Problem

Large capacity ammunition magazines are designed to enable shooting mass numbers of people quickly andefficiently without reloading. They have been used in numerous mass shootings, including in Tucson, Virginia Tech, Fort Hood, and Columbine, but they are not useful for hunting or self-defense.

According to law enforcement, “There’s absolutely no doubt the magazines increased the lethality and the body count of [the Tucson] attack. >In just 15 seconds, the shooter was able to fire more than 30 shots fromone magazine, hitting 19 people, including Rep. Giffords, killing 6, including a 9-year-old girl and a federal judge. The damage was limited to the firepower of his magazine; when it was empty, he was stopped while attempting to reload. Unfortunately, a large capacity magazine enabled him to fire more than three times the rounds of a standard magazine.

New magazines containing more than 10 rounds were banned under the Federal Assault Weapons Act, but Congress did not renew the law in 2004, despite widespread support from over 70% of Americans.

Now only 6 states and D.C. limit the capacity of magazines.

What The Act Does

The Act makes it unlawful for a person to possess a large capacity ammunition magazine unless it was lawfully possessed before the bill was enacted. It also prohibits the transfer or sale of large capacityammunition magazines.

The Act defines large capacity ammunition magazines as those devices holding more than 10 rounds ofammunition.

The Act does not restrict in any way the sale or possession of conventional-sized ammunition magazines used by sportsmen and other law-abiding firearms owners.

The bill eliminates a problem of the lapsed federal ban, as it prevents sellers from circumventing the law bystockpiling large capacity magazines, and then selling them after the ban takes effect.

Leading experts on gun policy have concluded that banning high-capacity magazines is “a common-sensepolicy change that is likely to generate modest but important benefits to society at a very small cost, and so is worth doing.”

Exemptions

The Act contains exemptions for active and retired law enforcement, for certain federal and state departments and agencies, and allows manufacture, transfer, or possession of large capacity magazines for authorized testing or experimentation.

Over 70% favor banning large capacity ammunition magazines and assault weapons, The Harris Poll, Sept. 9-13, 2004

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 12th, 2011 at 9:20 am and is filed under brady campaign, gabrielle giffords, gun control, politics, second amendment. Tags for this post: brady campaign, extended magazines, Gabrielle Giffords, gun control, second amendment. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.