Interesting video on the efficacy of restricting the capacity of firearms magazines.
The people doing the shooting in the demo are not particularly good or fast at changing magazines. Just as well, as the average mass murderer is probably just an average lunatic and not well practiced.
The video would have been better had the shooters not had the replacement magazines laying there, ready to go on the top of a barrel. In a mass murder situation, the shooter is likely to have the extra magazines in a belt pouch or other type carrier upon his person. Even so, I can change magazines more quickly than the shooters shown, carrying my spares on a weak side (opposite my shooting hand) belt carrier.
Note that the shooters use a “tactical reload” rather than an emergency reload. The latter is done when you run empty and the slide of your semi-auto pistol or rifle locks back indicating you are empty. When this happens, the empty magazine is removed, the full replacement is inserted and a slide or bolt release must be actuated to insert the next round into the chamber.
In a tactical reload, one reloads at his or her convenience, perhaps just to “top up” your ammo. You might still have half a magazine, but anticipate needing more than half shortly. In the video, they use the tactical reload to eliminate the step of releasing the locked-back slide. The slide never locks back until they have run all the magazines; that’s the only time they are empty. That is, with a ten-round magazine, fire nine shots. Now the magazine is empty and the tenth round is in the chamber ready to fire. (So you’re not yet empty.) Drop the empty magazine, insert the full one and you now have eleven rounds ready to go. Fire ten, drop that empty magazine (with one yet in the chamber) and repeat as often as necessary.
Actually, any mass murderer with a brain would already have one round in the chamber with ten in the mag. Fire ten, still have one in the chamber then reload. The one in the chamber while reloading is handy if some hero thinks you’re empty and charges you. I’m just saying’… And even if empty, a practiced shooter like this guy who’s about my speed changes magazines fairly quickly,.
The fact that magazines are interchangeable means that capacity is not all that significant in the overall scheme of things. People who want to restrict magazine capacity as a cure for mass shootings are deluded.
California has a different idea. There, rifle magazines are not so interchangeable. CA would like nothing better than that a gunsmith should be required to reload your rifle. In CA, a magazine cannot be detachable without the use of a tool. Gone is the common magazine release button, replaced by a “bullet button”. That is, to comply with the requirement that a tool be required to release the magazine, the mag release button is recessed and must be pressed by some sort of tool; a finger is too big (and not a tool). The bullet button uses an ordinary round of ammo as a tool to press into the recessed area of the button and detach the magazine. Before the bullet button, you might have to break open your weapon and reload the magazine from a stripper clip.
Clever people designed a magnetized tool to attach right over the bullet button but, apparently, this is not allowed as the tool must be separate from the weapon. Some people attach a tool or dummy round right to their shooting vest, to keep it handy. Others have gloves with a little spiky tool built in to press the bullet button.
One outfit came up with the Ultimate Bullet Button Tool that attaches right to each magazine so that the full magazine about to be loaded is the tool to release the empty magazine.
All of this is an inconvenience for shooters but will do diddly squat to reduce mass shootings. The percentage of firearms deaths due to all rifles, much less “assault weapons” is very, very slight.
One has to wonder why politicians spend so much time and effort accomplishing no real reductions in deaths and merely harassing gun owners. I guess it’s an easier path than addressing the real issue.