On August 13th, after a short foot chase, a young Milwaukee resident turned to face a Milwaukee police officer. The police officer said the suspect was holding a hand gun. The officer shot and killed the suspect. A hand gun was recovered at the scene. This recovered weapon was reportedly stolen from a home in Genesee in Waukesha County.
The Milwaukee Police Department described the weapon as a semi-automatic hand gun and was loaded with 23 rounds.
A semi-automatic hand gun with 23 rounds. I haven’t seen any more recent descriptions of the gun so I don’t know what make or model it is or whether 23 rounds is its maximum or just what it contained when recovered.
But what does a young man in Milwaukee need with a hand gun that holds 23 rounds? What does a home owner in Waukesha County need with a gun that holds 23 rounds. What do you or I need with a gun that holds 23 rounds.
The West was won with six shooters.
Dirty Harry cleaned up San Francisco with six shots…or in all of the confusion was it only five?
Even the United States Army…a place where maximum fire power is imperative…issues Baretta M9 pistols holding 15 rounds.
So why do we allow guns with such large capacities on our streets and in our homes? I would suggest limiting hand guns to 6 or 8 or 10 rounds…limit magazines to those numbers…and just plain get rid of everything else.
Yes, yes, that is an awful idea…I mean there is the 2nd Amendment and all…but I can’t own a rocket propelled grenade, a howitzer, or a nuclear weapon…so there are limits to the 2nd Amendment…I am just suggesting we move the line a bit.
Anyone know why it’s the 2nd Amendment and not the first?? Is freedom of speech and religion more important? And without looking what’s the 3rd? I will admit I had to look it up.
Thank you for again bringing sanity to the issue of guns in this nation. Might I add that in addition to agreeing with you that these high-capacity clips simply should not be on the market we also need to limit the types of guns that can be manufactured. In no way am I talking about ending hunting, but the so-called dum-dum bullets and hollow-point bullets, and types of weapons that are designed to slaughter people are not the ones folks are taking out to the woods in Wisconsin to kill a deer, therefore drastically limit their manufacture. I also support coded ammo to track who purchased it, and also having laws on the books that would place a penalty for those who do not lock their guns up, thereby creating ‘an attractive nuisance’. I want to see the assault weapons ban again the law of the land. Finally I want funding to be restored, the funding that the NRA chokes off, for federal research on gun violence. Thanks, Ed for writing and talking about these matters.
A 23-round magazine is useful because the vast majority of shots fired in a stress situation will miss their targets. Many (most?) people of the Lefty persuasion have never actually bothered to fire a handgun, and depend on movies for their firearms education (see ‘Dirty Harry’ reference above), which are painfully inaccurate as to the difficulty level of hitting, well, ANYTHING with a handgun beyond very short distances.
Tactical advantages such as greater capacity w/o reloading are exceedingly useful in combat and defensive situations.
WashCoRepub, truer words have not been spoken. When a teen, I was on a shooting team and could consistently score in the upper 40’s (out of 50) on deci-targets (the bulls-eye is slightly bigger than the period at the end of this sentence) using a 22 rifle with peep sights at 50 feet. We just got a Stoeger Cougar 8000 in 9mm. After 100 FMJ rounds at 50 feet the vast majority of shots fired in a
controlled situationmiss their targets (cans in this case). It should be good for wolfs or wild dogs but I’ve been warned that 9mm is a little light to down a homicidal bear, so hollow points will be the rule this Fall and next Spring to ensure an unlikely tragedy becomes an interesting rug.“the vast majority of shots fired in a stress situation will miss their targets.”
And hit whomever else happens to be standing around. Thanks WaCoR, you make a great argument for banning handguns altogether.
What if you need 20 shots against the thugs? Hasn’t anyone seen the murders in Milwaukee, more than Chicago. thugs galore in drug trade.
23 rounds, that’s all? I prefer to go into Tom Barrett’s Milwaukee with much more.
Liberalism has destroyed so much that personal protection of the productive sector is mandatory, yet liberals want to limit that protection to further their destruction to remain in power.
It’s still comical that liberalism thinks it can control criminals by limiting the law abiding. But look what liberalism has done to Hillary, her brain is literally melting.
The analytical problem goes to costs and benefits. What’s worse, the risks from having a gun in the house vs. the risks from not having a gun in the house ???
With a gun you open your family to deaths from Major Depression suicides (effectively doubled at homes with guns), gun accidents, and rage killings. These total to more than 30,000 deaths a year in the United States.
Home defense is claimed by NRA to produce 2,000,000 active armed incidents a year at homes. Statistics generated by the nation’s coroners show totals of between 220 and 280 for civilian justifiable homicides a year. Of those CJHs fewer than 50 defensive killings occur at residences.
Roughly 10,000 gun suicides that would not happen otherwise, 1,000 accidents, and 8,400 gun murders and willful manslaughters. That’s the cost vs. very few lethal home defenses. And violent crime has declined by 15% from 2007-2015 according to the FBI statisticians.
Sounds like a good guy with a gun (a concealed-carry permit holder and trainer) stopped the terrorist knife attack in Minnesota… very fortunate.
http://www.startribune.com/praise-as-hero-comes-quickly-to-off-duty-officer-who-killed-st-cloud-mall-attacker/393899411/
Not quite as miraculous as it would seem…the hero was more than just a ccw holder and trainer as you stated. He was an off duty police officer. He was not John Smith, Tom Jones, WashCoRepub or me.
There are very few civilians that would have been able to handle that situation as effectively.
Hey, I’ve got an idea on how to reduce the violence in schools that will satisfy the gun lobby; let’s arm the kids!
Yep, K12 goes Second Amendment.
But really, are there no limitations on an archaic amendment to provide for the arming and mobilization if needed of a ctizen soldier?