With that, I'll segue into answering your question about magazines and specialty weapons and regulations. There are, essentially two sets of gun laws in the US. Federal law and state law. Federal law applies everywhere and sets the 'base'. Prohibitions on felons, the mentally ill and the like are federal. The required background check before buying a handgun is a federal law. The near-illegality of select fire automatic weapons is a federal law. I say near-illegality because it -is- possible to own a fully automatic select-fire weapon. But it requires months of background checks with the ATF and local LEOs as well as thousands of dollars per firearm. Same goes for suppressors, though the requirements aren't as onerous from a monetary standpoint. Further, you cannot sell firearms to someone without an FFL across state lines. There are federal restrictions on barrel length for long arms (they have to be over a certain size so they are difficult to conceal). There are also age restrictions. 18 for long arms, and 21 for handguns, I believe. Straw purchases are illegal.
From there, laws vary by state. From the highly restrictive ordinances in Chicago and DC that make it virtually impossible to own a handgun legally and difficult to own long guns to the more permissive states that have shall issue conceal carry permits. States like CT for instance have not only the federal requirements, but also require gun registration and a 3 day waiting period. the so-called 'gun show loophole' is non-existent. The vendors at gun shows have to follow the same laws as a free-standing gun shop. Different states restrict different types of ammunition and high capacity magazines. http://www.cga.ct.gov/2007/rpt/2007-R-0217.htm is a good summary. But high capacity mags are a non-issue. They jam overwhelmingly more often and aren't a factor in assaults by maniacs for that reason. Some states have CCW reciprocity agreements with other states, some don't even if they have CCW permits. Also, some have shall issue CCWs instead of may issue. That is, shall issue means that if you meet the basic requirements which are usually gun safety classes, training, a higher burden of liability and passing the background check, the sheriff must issue the CCW. May issue means the sheriff can tell you go pound sand for any reason or none.
On a side note, http://www.businessinsider.com/is-mass-murder-on-the-rise-2012-7 has an excerpt that indicates that mass murder is not on the rise. In fact, the same expert was on NPR last week and mentioned that the number of these incidents per year and the number of deaths are about the same for the last four decades. There is some evidence that once the attackers are confronted by armed responders they either suicide or surrender. As for the question of the efficacy of civilians stopping these rampages and the numbers indicate that waiting for the cops costs about 6x as many lives as if there's an armed civilian able to respond: http://silverunderground.com/2012/07/auditing-shooting-rampage-statistics/
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Date: 2012-12-18 03:27 am (UTC)With that, I'll segue into answering your question about magazines and specialty weapons and regulations. There are, essentially two sets of gun laws in the US. Federal law and state law. Federal law applies everywhere and sets the 'base'. Prohibitions on felons, the mentally ill and the like are federal. The required background check before buying a handgun is a federal law. The near-illegality of select fire automatic weapons is a federal law. I say near-illegality because it -is- possible to own a fully automatic select-fire weapon. But it requires months of background checks with the ATF and local LEOs as well as thousands of dollars per firearm. Same goes for suppressors, though the requirements aren't as onerous from a monetary standpoint. Further, you cannot sell firearms to someone without an FFL across state lines. There are federal restrictions on barrel length for long arms (they have to be over a certain size so they are difficult to conceal). There are also age restrictions. 18 for long arms, and 21 for handguns, I believe. Straw purchases are illegal.
From there, laws vary by state. From the highly restrictive ordinances in Chicago and DC that make it virtually impossible to own a handgun legally and difficult to own long guns to the more permissive states that have shall issue conceal carry permits. States like CT for instance have not only the federal requirements, but also require gun registration and a 3 day waiting period. the so-called 'gun show loophole' is non-existent. The vendors at gun shows have to follow the same laws as a free-standing gun shop. Different states restrict different types of ammunition and high capacity magazines. http://www.cga.ct.gov/2007/rpt/2007-R-0217.htm is a good summary. But high capacity mags are a non-issue. They jam overwhelmingly more often and aren't a factor in assaults by maniacs for that reason. Some states have CCW reciprocity agreements with other states, some don't even if they have CCW permits. Also, some have shall issue CCWs instead of may issue. That is, shall issue means that if you meet the basic requirements which are usually gun safety classes, training, a higher burden of liability and passing the background check, the sheriff must issue the CCW. May issue means the sheriff can tell you go pound sand for any reason or none.
On a side note, http://www.businessinsider.com/is-mass-murder-on-the-rise-2012-7 has an excerpt that indicates that mass murder is not on the rise. In fact, the same expert was on NPR last week and mentioned that the number of these incidents per year and the number of deaths are about the same for the last four decades. There is some evidence that once the attackers are confronted by armed responders they either suicide or surrender. As for the question of the efficacy of civilians stopping these rampages and the numbers indicate that waiting for the cops costs about 6x as many lives as if there's an armed civilian able to respond: http://silverunderground.com/2012/07/auditing-shooting-rampage-statistics/