[ad_1]
A law enforcement official is standing at the entrance of a municipal building that was the scene of a shootout last week in Virginia Beach, Virginia.
Patrick Semansky / AP
hide legend
activate the legend
Patrick Semansky / AP
A law enforcement official is standing at the entrance of a municipal building that was the scene of a shootout last week in Virginia Beach, Virginia.
Patrick Semansky / AP
The man who killed 12 people in a municipal building Friday in Virginia Beach, Virginia fired several bullets – "far above the numbers" – and when the police caught up with the suspect, it took a "long battle" "to stop him, according to the chief of police, James Cervera.
One of the reasons could have been the speed of the suspect.
Authorities have recovered a .45 caliber handgun containing many empty magazines, said Cervera at a press conference held last weekend. "The suspect was reloading long magazines in this handgun, shooting at the victims throughout the building and at our agents."
An extended loader is essentially a metal sleeve that contains more balls than the normal capacity of a gun.
"This allows someone to shoot more bullets before he is forced to reload his gun," said David Chipman, former special agent of ATF, who is now senior advisor on Policy Brief for the Giffords Law Center.
The center is named after former parliamentarian Gabby Giffords, who was nearly murdered in 2011 by an armed man using a pistol equipped with a 33-cartridge magazine.
Chipman thinks that long magazines increase the fatality of inexperienced shooters, especially those who have not practiced reloading under fire.
"We did not bring [extended magazines] on the SWAT team, "said Chipman. But they turn a determined person to kill into a much more effective person to do it. "
Many magazines have been used in some of the worst filming in recent American history, including Sandy Hook. A survey conducted in 2013 by Mother Jones focused on 62 large-scale shootings and found that half-high-capacity magazines were used at least half.
But other gun experts are not convinced that magazines are so important. "This type of magazine does not mean a potential threat," said Thor Eells, commander of the retired SWAT Colorado Springs, Colorado, now executive director of the National Tactical Officers Association.
He says that modern semi-automatic handguns are very fast and easy to reload. As a result, the size of the magazine does not give an attacker a practical advantage over the police.
Eells says that it is "plausible" that mass shooters often opt for extended magazines, persuaded that they could make up for their lack of address with the gun. But he says the reality is that a high-capacity magazine may become a hindrance in blocking.
Although federal authorities have repeatedly called for restrictions on high-capacity magazines in recent years, seizures have been largely unregulated since the expiry of the federal ban on assault weapons, in 2004.
Restrictions are expected in about one-fifth of states, including California, which in 2000 banned new magazine sales containing more than ten towers. A 2016 voting initiative went further, banning even the ownership of legally-purchased large-capacity magazines.
Gun rights groups challenged California law and in March a federal judge agreed with them that the ban was unconstitutional. In his opinion, Judge Roger Benitez determined that the shippers were qualified as "weapons" and were covered by the second amendment.
"I was a little surprised, but I was happy," said Michael Hammond, of Gun Owners of America. He says the decision gives him hope that the new Conservative Supreme Court Party will similarly protect the rights to own firearms and props.
Hammond considers that efforts to restrict props – whether it's high-capacity magazines, noise suppressors or embossed media – are part of a broader attack on guns fire.
"It's an effort to [gun-control groups] put points on the board. It is an effort on their part to use these horrific tragedies to demonstrate that they are making political progress in their efforts to destroy the second amendment. "
[ad_2]
Source link