'increasing number law enforcement officers shot with magazines holding more than 10 rounds' Duh!

March 22, 2013

Magpul Industries Corp mentions a couple facts here worthy of comment.

First, is "an increasing number of Law Enforcement officers have been shot with magazines that hold more than 10 rounds since the expiration of the federal AWB." I'm pretty sure this was said by Baltimore Police Chief Jim Johnson during January testimony in the Senate Judiciary Committee hearings on gun violence. For those of us familiar with modern firearms, this was considered probably true. It was as plain as saying 'victims of gun violence have been shot with guns' or 'an increasing number of traffic accidents involve newer model cars'. Equally obvious was the explanation provided by Magpul, "Since most handguns ship with standard capacity magazines that hold more than 10 or even 15 rounds, that would make sense". That's right. Most modern semi-automatic handguns sold today have magazines containing more than 10 rounds which is why the traffic accident comparison is valid. As obvious as this was to firearms owners, Magpul is the first I've seen to put it in print.

Second, Magpul goes on to further explain that "the average number of rounds fired in a criminal homicide is less than 5 rounds. The capacity of the magazine never comes into play. It just happens to be what is in the firearm, regardless of how many rounds were actually fired." This is a statistic I have seen printed before. What it means, of course, is that magazine capacity bans will have no measurable impact on crime. Law enforcement and our politicians know this. The data is available to them. Using the data for an honest, open, "common sense" and "reasonable" discussion about gun violence is apparently beyond reach of the gun control zealots though.

I agree with Magpul's conclusion that "This is just another example of how the anti-gun lobby has to twist statistics in order to find support for their position. The real, objective facts support none of their agenda, so half truths and distorted statistics are used to tell the story they want to tell—like the recent study they touted where “more gun laws equal less crime”, except they left several states and all major metropolitan areas out of the statistics, and included all manner of extraneous data…because that was the only way to “prove” what they wanted to present as fact. Chicago is safer than Missoula, MT? DC is safer than Ft Worth? Really? That’s just insulting to even suggest." I have said essentially the same thing in previous posts and in verbal conversation. I have also suggested, as does Magpul, that you cannot trust statistics or survey data of the gun control lobby unless you can examine the data and survey questions and design. Raw data doesn't lie but can be manipulated, especially through exclusion. People do lie through their analysis of data. If the process isn't open, it's suspect.

Magpul's Statement: https://www.facebook.com/magpul/posts/575588089120211