Your guide to semi-automatic rifles

[NickB79]

108. Great post. One problem: how do we get back the billions of high-capacity magazines?

If a law were passed outlawing them and requiring their surrender, we have to pay their owners fair compensation.

Several billion magazines (not an unlikely number) at $10-$50/magazine, along with the man-hours needed to collect and dispose of the magazines, starts to add up quickly. And even then, given how small and easily hidden they are, you will likely never collect more than a fraction of them in our lifetimes.

And then we haven't even started on the threat of 3D printers and easily made polymer magazines: http://www.forbes.com/sites/andygreenberg/2013/01/14/gunsmiths-3d-print-high-capacity-ammo-clips-to-thwart-proposed-gun-laws/#5210b7203fed

Over the past weekend, Defense Distributed successfully 3D-printed and tested an ammunition magazine for an AR semi-automatic rifle, loading and firing 86 rounds from the 30-round clip.

That homemade chunk of curved plastic holds special significance: Between 1994 and 2004, so-called “high capacity magazines” capable of holding more than 10 bullets were banned from sale. And a new gun control bill proposed by California Senator Diane Feinstein would ban those larger ammo clips again. President Obama has also voiced support for the magazine restrictions.

But Defense Distributed founder Cody Wilson says he hopes the group’s recent work demonstrates the futility of that proposed ban in the age of cheap 3D printing.

“We want to preempt Feinstein, to eat their lunch,” says Wilson. “This isn’t 1994. The Internet happened since the last assault weapons ban. This is a fledgling tech, but look what we’re able to do. We printed that magazine out.”

Anyone have any suggestions?