Large-capacity magazines, containers that hold more than 15 rounds of ammunition, have been . Lawmakers passed the ban following the 2012 at a movie theater in Aurora. Several states, including
On a bright, hot day at Baker Draw, in Ault, Colorado, at least one person was using his.
鈥淪o we鈥檙e looking at a couple PMAGs here that were pre-ban,鈥� said a soldier who did not want to give his name. 鈥淲e鈥檙e also looking at a military grade 30-round magazine that I acquired over the years of service. And we鈥檙e looking at a Vietnam-era 20-round mag for an M16.鈥�
Before shooting at a public range in northern Colorado, a soldier shows a few of the large-capacity magazines that he says were acquired before the Colorado ban took effect in 2013.
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The soldier says his magazines are legal, purchased before the law took effect. Six years into the ban, he says large-capacity magazines are pretty common among gun owners he knows.
鈥淲hether it be for recreation,鈥� he said, 鈥渙r that sense of they鈥檙e carrying something a servicemember or a policeman would carry.鈥�
Six Years, 11 Sentenced
On July 20, 2012, a shooter . Months later, Colorado lawmakers voted to ban the sale of large-capacity magazines as part of a suite of gun bills.
Calls for new gun laws often follow mass shootings, but whether or not those laws actually work to reduce gun violence is a different story. In the six years since Colorado鈥檚 magazine ban went into effect, few people have been sentenced for violating it.
Generally, people who are using large-capacity magazines, at a shooting range for example, aren鈥檛 the ones getting in trouble for having them. Data from Colorado鈥檚 Office of the State Court Administrator analyzed by Guns & America show that since 2013, 104 cases have included charges for violating this statute.
Over the six years the ban has been in place, just 11 people, all men in their 20s and 30s, have been convicted and sentenced for violating the magazine ban.
Lawyers in Colorado鈥檚 have prosecuted about a dozen of these cases.
鈥淲e don鈥檛 have roving patrols of police officers going door-to-door saying, 鈥楬ey do you have an extended magazine?鈥欌�� District Attorney George Brauchler, an elected Republican, explained. 鈥淭he way law enforcement comes across these things is they have reason to contact someone for a different crime.鈥�
State data indicate that the most common connected offenses relate to drugs and weapons.
Brauchler does not think the law has had an impact on crime and, in his role as the district attorney who prosecuted the Aurora theater shooter, he does not think the magazine ban would have made a difference in that incident.
鈥淚 just don鈥檛 think that you can argue that 鈥楳an, if we just reduced the magazine capacity enough, we鈥檙e gonna save lives,鈥欌�� he said. 鈥淚 think that is speculative.鈥�
The Aurora theater shooter used a 100-round magazine; the incident ended when his , so knowing what would have happened had he been using a magazine with a lower capacity is speculation.
Broadly, reducing mass shootings through legislation is difficult because mass shootings are rare compared to other types of gun violence.
found no research to suggest that magazine bans reduce outcomes like firearm suicides or officer-involved shootings. Research on the effect of banning large-capacity magazines on mass shootings and violent crime .
State Sen. Rhonda Fields says the Aurora theater shooting motivated her to sponsor gun control legislation, including the 2013 large-capacity magazine ban.
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鈥楾he Right Thing To Be Doing鈥�
Colorado State Sen. Rhonda Fields, a Democract, . At the time, she represented the district that included the site of the Aurora theater shooting. Upon hearing about the incident, she described feeling like her 鈥渨orld was crumbling.鈥� had been shot and killed years before.
鈥淪o when this happened in my community,鈥� Fields said, 鈥渋t was like re-living the pain associated with gun violence all over again.鈥�
Fields said that she was surprised that so few people have been prosecuted for violating the ban. But she brought up the large-capacity magazines used in , and in the shooting of former Rep. Gabby Giffords, and suggested that Colorado鈥檚 ban may have thwarted other potential incidents.
鈥淭he number of people that have been charged or convicted, it鈥檚 not great,鈥� Field said. 鈥淏ut when you think about the future, I think the right thing to be doing is to limit that capacity.鈥�
The future of these policies, however, is uncertain. ban is the subject of an ongoing legal challenge. In Colorado, a lawsuit against the ban has reached the state鈥檚 Supreme Court.
About The Reporting
Guns & America analyzed data obtained from Colorado鈥檚 Office of the State Court Administrator. .
is a public media reporting project on the role of guns in American life.
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