Magazine size discussion - Colorado

[madamesilverspurs]

Current discussions in the Colorado House, legislation to limit the size of magazines. Disheartening, and more than a little sickening, to listen to the Republicans dismiss the legitimate concerns as "feelgood" legislation that won't "keep us safe". Remarkable commentary given that our safety, in their view, takes a distant back seat to the right of a gun owner to be able to shoot fifteen people before having to go to the trouble of reloading.


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[backscatter712]

1. I'd go as far as requiring civilian weapons to be fit with electronic rate-of-fire limiters.

That's the point of a magazine cap - to slow down a weapon's firing rate after a fashion.

I'd take the more direct route - require all civilian firearms to be permanently fitted with a device that will electronically activate a mechanism that blocks firing when the gun has fired say more than ten rounds in five seconds or 20 rounds in 30 seconds. The limiter will prevent the gun from firing until an internal timer expires, thereby ensuring that the weapon has an absolute, programmable cap on its rate of fire.

Circumventing the rate-of-fire limiter would be a felony akin to illegally possessing a machine gun or illegally converting a gun to full-auto fire. Off to Federal PMITA prison...

[ProgressiveProfessor]

3. Not viable technically

[backscatter712]

4. Why not?

What's hard about a microcontroller, a small battery, a small solenoid to flip a switch that is mechanically similar to safety switches already available on most firearms?

[SQUEE]

5. Because electronic firing mechanisms are not legal as per the ATF, a trigger and firing pin must be

mechanically linked.

It has been attempted, and numerous large bore military systems do use electronic actuation. But to date no electronic firing system has been approved.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

2. Sometimes the pols amaze us and get something right early on

The limits are feel goods...they really will not materially impact long term rate of fire. The ~15 round magazines for most modern pistols is not high capacity, its the normal design capacity.

A reasonable limit is that the magazines must fit entirely within the hand grip and that can be done without a vote of Congress by the BATF