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“High Capacity Magazines”: Our Enemies Have ‘Em But You Can’t!

Robert Farago - comments No comments

Captured items from SEAL raid in Somalia

*California, Colorado, the District of Columbia, Hawaii, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey or New York restrict or prohibit ownership of “high capacity” ammunition magazines. If you’re a terrorist living in Somalia, no problem. You can own as many ammunition magazines of whatever type you like. As they say, whatever you can get. Like a MagPul EMAG (fits an HK416) and a standard issues magazine for an MP7. And where did the terrorist group Shabab get these examples? From . . .

a more than reasonably successful pre-dawn SEAL raid. The good guys got bad guy and left the mags, GPS device, cartridges and other stuff behind.

Now you could say that SpecOps forces need these “high capacity” mags a lot more than you do. And you’d be right. But you could also say that our enemies—terrorists and criminals—have these relatively low-tech ammunition storage devices for their guns so why shouldn’t we, the people, have them too?

The only sensible answer: because some people don’t want Americans to defend themselves. They believe the “professionals” should do it. Period. De-magging those who aren’t professionals reduces the population of “high capacity” (i.e., standard capacity) magazines available to the bad guys.

Only that’s not how it works in the real world is it?

In the real world, criminals and madmen are clever, determined and focused people. One way or another, they get access to all the equipment they want or need to achieve their goals. In the real world, the armed professionals only arrive after the party starts, after the blood is shed. In the real world, we the people have to look out for ourselves.

Speaking of which . . .

Did you hear there were SIX undercover cops amongst the bikers that attacked and nearly killed an SUV driver in New York? I’m not saying the driver should have had an AR with a “high capacity” magazine on board when the S hit the F. But I am saying that the Constitution protects his right to keep and bear arms and the bits that make them work. In theory.

0 thoughts on ““High Capacity Magazines”: Our Enemies Have ‘Em But You Can’t!”

  1. There was a gas station/ liquor store robbed about 2 months ago about 8 miles north of this shop and 1 mile West. The robber was armed with a steel framed semi auto and after the clerk complied and handed over cash the robber still violently pistol whipped the clerk. Although that above quote is pretty rough, he has to do something if he wants to keep his business.

    Reply
    • There’s more than one story of robberies that end in executions even after the victims had fully complied. Compliance and passivity will will not save you.

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  2. TO: Robert Farago
    RE: Colorado

    Here in Colorado you can own high capacity magazines. But you have to have possessed them BEFORE 1 July 2013.

    Regards,

    Chuck(le)
    [Be Prepared…..]

    Reply
    • Here in NY 10 round mags were the rule, but we could own pre-Clinton ban standard mags. Until the latest round of regs. Now it’s 10 round capacity loaded with only 7 rounds. They eat the apple one bite at a time.

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    • If someone had told me 10 years ago that such a ban (on the transfer of magazines of more than 15 rounds) would be passed in Colorado, I would have laughed in their face. Times change.

      I did stock up on normal capacity magazines shortly before the July 1st deadline, purchasing dozens of mags including some for guns I don’t even own yet. As a result of this law, I’m far better armed than I would have been had it not passed.

      Way to go, gun grabbers!

      Reply
  3. Bought the PA-08 last Christmas for my son, he loves it, the only complaint he has is it doesn’t cycle near as smooth as my Mossberg 500, I’ve tried his and have to agree, the Weatherby isn’t quite as smooth, he isn’t ready to trade it in, it’s a great shooting gun for pheasant and ducks, a little too slow for competition though.

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  4. I avoid free fire zones. These “gun free” zones are like magnets for crazy people, like active shooters [and professors]. As long as I avoid colleges, I avoid having to defend myself against a mass shooting or a radical professor. Luckily, in this time in my life and career, I do not need to go back to college.

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  5. I have to assume that the mag cap limits are the bastard product of sheer ignorance of function and of ease of manufacture on the one hand and some semblance of ‘doing something’ while not ‘infringing’ on hunters and traditionalists on the other.

    Even during the ’94 AWB standard cap mags were available through many channels for every conceivable weapon though they were scarcer and more expensive. . . which is why even small fabricating shops began taking them apart and realizing that manufacturing them was outrageously profitable given how cheap they are to make and what they were selling for at the time.

    It was like being able to make cocaine out of sand, and having a prescription for it so if you were ever caught with it you could claim it was legal (grandfathered). Since the full weight of the government still can’t (never could and never will) prevent the influx of real coke over the borders the very concept that they could some how regulate or eradicate something as easily whipped up as magazine is completely absurd.

    Such laws are a reflection of what happens when those who legislate know not what it is they legislate. A metal tab, a bent section of sheet metal, a stamped piece a spring and a spot weld is not exactly high tech manufacturing, its so simple basically anyone could do it in a garage on the weekends, and with injection molded plastics the number small enterprises with the potential to be rogue mag makers increases considerably.

    Whatever makes US lawmakers think that we the people, with the vast resources of material, manufacturing and technical ability couldn’t keep rifle magazines in supply when the Afghan’s somehow manage to do it without even the benefit of duct tape is beyond me.

    As for the SUV Vs motorcycle; I’m still going with the high capacity assault SUV as the weapon of choice. For me there is little traction in that encounter for an armed citizen meme. He was heavily armed for the encounter and failed to properly employ his weapon. He didn’t need more or different weapons, he needed a better plan and more resolve.

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  6. Magazines are worthless without a firearm that they fit into. I am fortunate enough to live in a state that doesn’t restrict magazine capacity unless hunting. Another note, I understand the cops undercover not wanting to blow the cover, but they really just didn’t do anything?

    Reply
    • I see the police were off duty. I wasn’t there but I bet that SUV driver wishes he could have drove over more than just one guy. In that above news link that Edwin that got run over only knew one friend in that group? Ever heard of knowing the guys you ride with? Besides why was his bike and person directly in front of that SUV if he was trying to redirect the other bikers (as per his wife)?

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  7. Wait did the bad guys actually take the above image or is that a remake? If so then I see they have decent camera technology. Surprised the SEAL’s couldn’t find a place for some rounds and two mags, like an extra pocket, god knows their vests have plenty.

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  8. I am of the opinion that the police use tactics that increase the likelihood that they will have the opportunity to shoot somebody. I don’t see that opinion changing based on this story nor the comments here.

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  9. The whole concept of a misdemeanor at the state level creating a felony at the Federal level is completely retarded and even more so on something unrelated.

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  10. As a former Detroiter, I couldn’t agree more. These thugs are like wild dogs running loose and they need to be put down.

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  11. When I was a college student in the mid 90’s the campus I attended had a no guns policy, get this, even if you lived off campus. I have no idea what the enforcement mechanism was but I suppose they intended to expel you if you so much as had a gun in private off campus housing. I lived in said housing and of course possessed a gun. At the time Ohio had no concealed carry law and so carrying concealed was problematic, and with the effective global ban on student firearms ownership open carry was also right out.

    What resulted was a hodge podge of deciding when to risk felony arrest and expulsion by unlawfully carrying concealed and when to risk victimization by going about unarmed. I eventually solved some of this dilemma by joining the fencing team and taking up the cutlass as my instrument. Certainly not a gun, but in even semi-trained hands an imposing weapon within it’s range, and one which I could carry literally everywhere on campus and through the town strangely without drawing any attention.

    These days as I tool up each morning I sometimes laugh at my college EDC. I was positioned to be the DCU of the century, I mean really, how often is a cutlass employed as a weapon these days?

    On a less funny note my college campus had a serial rapist, a double homicide and broad daylight kidnapping. I won’t say it was a dangerous place, but it wasn’t exactly a crime free utopia either.

    I’ll never truly understand those who do not wish to be armed. It seems to me irresponsible and impractical to go about lacking the means of effective defense. That is their right however, to eschew weapons and put on the brassard so to speak, though it comes with no protection. What troubles more is when they extend their madness to wishing that others not be armed either. I suppose some people just don’t get that their rights end where mine begin.

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  12. I call bullshit, Oh no another middle easterer that wants to shoot Americans, and in Boston to boot. The fed was at the store when it happened? How convenient, more Obama, Holder propaganda.

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  13. Just sent this to the Times I know they won’t gain anything from it but maybe if we email bomb them enough they’ll eventually start to pay attention and learn.

    Dear sir or madam,

    In reading your publication it has been made abundently clear that your reporters and editors do zero research such as calling the AR15 semi automatic rifle an assault rifle or assault weapon which it is not as it is semi automatic only meaning it fires one and only on round per press of the trigger and an assault rifle is a shoulder fired gas operated select fire rifle of intermediate caliber capable of engaging threats out to and beyond 300 meters. Now select fire means having more than one mode of fire e.g. semi and burst or semi and full auto. Yes they look exactly like what our troops carry but they lack multiple modes of fire, to simplify just because the Jeep Wrangler still kinda looks like the old Army Jeeps don’t mean they are.

    Sincerely,
    A pissed off veteran

    Reply
  14. ‘Round these parts, Wallyworld is alway out of everything except 12 gauge, .410 and .22-250. The LGS’s have been getting a fairly steady supply of popular pistol and rifle calibres though. Prices are pretty close to pre panic levels. I did see some .223 at Walmart yesterday, but it was $25 for a 20rd box of 55gr Remington soft points. I passed on that amazing deal.

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  15. Shelves are mainly empty at Wally World locations in north Texas.
    I did find 5.56 62gr XM855/SS109 Green Tip Steel Core online for $0.45 per round and PMC 9mm Luger 115gr FMJ 50/Box $15.99.
    .22 LR is still difficult to find and when found it’s high.

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  16. Sadly, there is no such thing as deterrence. Neither prison nor the death penalty nor armed shop/homeowners deter future crime, only the individual criminal. I hope he has a comfortable cot, because he will be sleeping in that shop as long as he operates it.

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  17. Upstate New York in the Catskills all the usual suspects have most of the common rifle rounds in stock. Wally-world near me even had Tula 5.56 for $6 a box recently. I don’t pay attention to pistol calibers too much since I don’t have a permit yet.
    Haven’t seen .22lr in ages though.

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  18. I just got a 100 rounds of .357 hollow points, Remington, from Wal Mart. 9mm is pretty common, .38 is uncommon but I’ve found it. .45/.40 seem common everywhere.

    Massachusetts.

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  19. I can say I have only had a few issues, one was attempted entry of my home, once was successful entry into my attached garage. Both were 05/06 both times I had a Mossberg 500. Thank God I have never not had the option of armed self defense at home ever, now armed at work unfortunately has and will never be an option.

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  20. Smith & Wesson M&P 15 Flat Dark Earth MOE 1:9 twist, with all the Magpul trimmings that came with that package
    Trijicon 4x ACOG with Trijicon mini red dot mounted on top
    Magpul BAD lever

    Reply

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