As a former military member and gun owner, I respect weapons and understand their capabilities. They can be used in a variety of ways: hunting, stopping a burglary, or just for the hobby of sport shooting.
And then there's the dark side that is on everyone's mind: the rare and tragic instance of a mass shooting.
It is due to this last point that we are on the precipice of more gun legislation. The rhetoric on both sides has been heated, but there's one thing that isn't disputed: criminals don't respect laws. You can see it in the Chicago, a city with strict gun control laws, which according to an official police analysis in 2011, had 361 shooting murders, 83 percent of all murders. And it's even more apparent in Washington, D.C., which despite its ban on guns within the district, still took on the nickname of "the nation's murder capital," according to the Washington Post.
There are sensible regulations for limiting the use of guns in crime, but for the most part, a ban on assault weapons, high capacity magazines, or a certain type of weapon will not solve the problem. New laws will give a feeling of comfort, but their effect will hit law-abiding citizens much harder than law-breaking criminals.
This isn't a how-to guide on how to break the law. This information is all readily available on the internet and criminals are already using these methods.
One proposal suggests limiting magazine capacity to 10 rounds. With a little bit of duct tape to link magazines "jungle style", a person can quickly reload.
And then there are the high capacity magazines that are already in existence. In the last Assault Weapons Ban of 1994, magazines in circulation were "grandfathered," meaning they remained legal to possess.
There's also the speed reload. With enough practice, a shooter can reload a new magazine from their pocket in less than one second.
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