Reply #6: assault wepaons bans tend to hinge on the firearm being a couple of things [View All]

[tburnsten]

Semiautomatic is generally at the top of the list, as well as using detachable magazines. Typically, there is some arbitrary limit set on how many rounds a magazine can hold before it makes "assault weapon" capacity, ten was the limit on the last federal ban. Newer bans might see a change of wording to make any semiauto capable of accepting a magazine over ten rounds assault weapons, which would effectively ban all semiautomatic firearms since magazines can be any size. There are generally a couple of common capacities for a specific make and model of firearm, for instance 20 and 30 rounds are the typical size of 5.56/.223 AR-15 rifles, but the rifle itself has nothing to do with magazine capacity. There are 40 round magazines, drum magazines that hold well over 100 rounds, smaller 90 round drums, basically the only thing a magazine needs to work with a rifle is proper dimensions where it locks into the magazine well.

I think that will be the next nonsense approach because it is incredibly arbitrary and broad, and the approach has already been attempted by D.C. when Dick Heller tried to register his Colt 1911, and they told him it was a machine gun under D.C. law because it was capable of accepting a magazine that holds more than 12 rounds. That design is normally seen with seven round magazines, though advances in magazine design have made reliable eight rounders relatively common as well. They effectively classified his seven-shot pistol as a machine gun because aftermarket, third-party manufacturers have made magazines that swell out into a drum magazine that can hold 25 or 40 rounds below the grip. I have never seen one in person or heard of anyone using one, and it seems like it would be of dubious quality, but that didn't stop D.C. from classifying a ubiquitous pistol design as a machine gun.


That would be like classifying any vehicle that could accept a spoiler as an illegal racecar.