The LuLac Edition #4, 944, April 5th, 2023

 WRITE ON WEDNESDAY 

Our "Write On Wednesday" logo. 

This week we take a  look at assault weapons and the rapid way guns have mowed down people of all stripes and ages. Having crazies and thugs reload makes perfect sense.

 FORCE KILLERS TO RELOAD

Many gun rights absolutists, including in Congress, hold that the Second Amendment (the second half of it, since they ignore the militia clause) precludes any firearms restrictions.

Fortunately, the amendment doesn’t mention magazines.

Each new mass murder increases frustration among the vast majority of Americans who believe that reasonable gun safety measures are not incompatible with the right to bear arms.

One such measure is limiting the size of ammunition magazines. Tragically, the country has such vast experience with mass murders committed with semiautomatic, assault-style weapons, that researches have been able to compare the results of such atrocities involving magazines of various sizes. Results consistently show higher death tolls with higher-capacity magazines.

As noted by The Washington Post, congregants at a synagogue in Poway, California, in 2019 were able to overwhelm a killer when he paused to reload after killing one person and emptying a 10-round magazine.

Later that same year, a killer in Dayton, Ohio, killed nine people and wounded more than 20 others while walking through an entertainment district, using an AR-15 to fire 41 shots in 32 seconds from a drum-style 100-round magazine, before police shot him.

“If he was using a 30-round magazine, he would at least have to reload once,” said Richard Biehl, Dayton’s police chief at the time.

Oregon voters in November overwhelmingly approved a 10-round magazine limit, and Illinois adopted that limit by law in January.

Since Congress can’t bring itself to restore the assault weapons ban that it allowed to lapse in 2004, it at least should restore the 10-round magazine limit that expired at the same time.