La Pierre vs Rendell
Wayne LaPierre and Ed Rendell locked horns this weekend over reinstating the assault weapons ban. Rendell is a good debater but this one was no contest - LaPierre won easily. The facts are not with Fast Eddie on this one.
One thing that stuck out was the issue of “high capacity” magazines. LaPierre pointed out that there’s no difference between two 10 round magazines and three of any other. Rendell responded there was a big difference because a shooter would have to change magazines.
Yes, a shooter would have to change magazines. However (news flash for the gov!) - they are designed to be changed quickly. That’s the whole point of them. So unless you are prepared to argue against detachable magazines altogether, the argument doesn’t make sense.
But there’s another point to be made here as well. If you count your shots you can actually “combat swap” your magazines without any disruption at all. When the last round from the magazine has been chambered but before your fire again, you simply drop the magazine and slap a new one in. You can then fire without any disruption at all. The failure for Rendell’s argument is that it’s a lot easier to keep track of 10 rounds than 15 or 20 or 30. In other words, a 10 round magazine limit could actually help a shooter reload faster.