A lead sponsor of legislation that would limit magazine capacity does not appear to know how firearm magazines actually work.
Rep. Diana DeGette (D., Colo.) introduced a bill that would restrict magazine capacity earlier this year. Speaking on the efficacy of that legislation at a Denver Post forum Tuesday, DeGette argued that, with the limits, "bullets will have been shot and there won’t be any more available." The Denver Post reports:
"I will tell you these are ammunition, they’re bullets, so the people who have those now they’re going to shoot them, so if you ban them in the future, the number of these high capacity magazines is going to decrease dramatically over time because the bullets will have been shot and there won’t be any more available."
What she didn’t appear to understand is that a magazine can be reloaded with more bullets. According to the Shooter’s Log, only early on were magazines for AR-15s designed to be disposable, but the military changed that and now magazines are used several times. In handguns, a magazine is designed to be reused hundreds of times. [...]
The National Rifle Association was not quite as diplomatic Wednesday in response to DeGette’s comments.
"Two words — pretty stupid," said NRA spokesman Andrew Arulanandam.
The full event can be viewed below (DeGette's remarks on magazines come at the 31-minute mark):