Firearms Owners Against Crime
Institute for Legal, Legislative and Educational Action
Institute for Legal, Legislative and Educational Action
New Jersey seems to go out of its way to screw over gun owners, especially when it comes to ammunition.
Not only are residents barred from using the most effective self-defense ammunition on the market, but now they’re looking at being able to carry even less of it as the state just dropped the magazine capacity limit from 15 rounds to just ten.
Gun owners in the Garden State aren’t happy, nor should they be.
That’s why they’re headed to court to go and fight this one out.
A gun-rights group challenging a New Jersey law that lowers the number of bullets a gun can hold argued Tuesday that American homeowners want weapons with more capacity.
The law passed in June limits state gun owners to magazines that hold 10 rounds instead of the 15-round limit in place since 1990.
The Association of New Jersey Rifle and Pistol Clubs, in 3rd U.S. Circuit Court arguments in Philadelphia, said the new law hurts only homeowners because criminals won’t follow it.
“They need to have some rationale why the rules in place [previously] are not enough,” lawyer David H. Thompson told the three-judge panel.
The New Jersey Attorney General’s Office argued that 10 rounds are plenty for self-defense. Anything more could prove dangerous to bystanders, Assistant Attorney General Jeremy Feigenbaum argued. And he said mass shooters might be interrupted if they have to stop to reload after 10 rounds.
Seven states, the District of Columbia and several cities have limits on large-capacity magazines that courts have generally upheld, according to briefs filed in the case. Thompson called New Jersey’s lower limit an undue burden and said there’s little evidence it will reduce gun violence.
I find it hilarious that someone from the New Jersey Attorney General’s office argued that a magazine capacity limit is somehow out of concern for bystanders. After all, New Jersey law legally bars hollowpoint ammunition, which has been shown in every test I’ve ever seen to be less likely to over-penetrate its target. Over-penetration, the kind which commonly happens with full metal jacket ammo, puts bystander lives at risk.
Frankly, hollowpoint ammunition is far safer when there’s a possibility of bystanders, which is part of the reason the ammunition is so common in law enforcement.
In other words, the New Jersey Attorney General’s office doesn’t give a damn about bystander’s lives. If they did, they’d push for repealing the ban on hollowpoints.
That ban, however, is also why a magazine capacity limit is so burdensome in New Jersey.
While other states have had their magazine restrictions upheld by the courts, almost all of them allow hollowpoints. While hollowpoints aren’t some magic round that will automatically stop someone with a single hit, the rounds are much more effective than hardball ammo types. As such, you can stop a potential threat with fewer rounds.
But New Jersey residents don’t have that option. They’re potentially going to need more shots to stop the bad guys, which means they’re completely screwed if they have to deal with more than one.
That doesn’t even touch on the laughable claims that one doesn’t need more than ten rounds for self-defense.
First, the Second Amendment is about our rights, not our needs, so knock that crap off right now. Second of all, I challenge you to find one viable personal defense expert who only carries ten rounds unless he’s restricted to those by his state of residence.
Pro-tip: You can’t. That’s because they’ll all tell you that it’s far better to finish the fight with having had too much ammo than not enough. That’s because you don’t get to pick the nature of the threats you face.
But then again, New Jersey anti-gunners think they know more about this stuff than anyone who studies this kind of thing for a living.
Tom Knighton is a Navy veteran, a former newspaperman, a novelist, and a blogger and lifetime shooter. He lives with his family in Southwest Georgia. https://bearingarms.com/author/tomknighton/
https://bearingarms.com/tom-k/2018/11/21/nj-gun-owners-file-suit-magazine-capacity-limit/