NJ democrats propose legislation to limit gun magazine ammo capacity

Assemblyman Louis Greenwald speaks during a February news conference with families of Sandy Hook Elementary School children killed in the Newtown Connecticut massacre. A bill the families pushed for to reduce the permitted size of ammunition magazines is before the Assembly Law and Public Safety Committee today.

(Patti Sapone/The Star-Ledger)

TRENTON — In what is expected to be a heavily attended and potentially rancorous meeting, a state Assembly panel today plans to take up a gun control bill to reduce the allowed size of ammunition magazines.

The bill (A2006) — a response to the 2012 Newtown, Conn., school massacre and the 2011 Arizona mass shooting that killed six and severely wounded U.S. Rep. Gabby Giffords (D-Ariz.) — would reduce the size of magazines permitted in New Jersey from 15 rounds to 10.

The Assembly Law and Public Safety Committee plans to take up the measure at 1:00pm.

Parents of Newtown victims have traveled to New Jersey twice to support the bill, saying many students escaped death because the shooter had to reload his magazine.

Gun rights advocates — who showed up to committee meetings by the hundreds last year to protest other proposed gun control laws — claim the bill will do nothing to enhance public safety and will only embolden criminals.

The bill had been opposed by Senate President Stephen Sweeney (D-Gloucester), who faced re-election last year in a competitive legislative district. Sweeney, however, now supports it.

The committee will also take up a bill (A2777) – intended as an olive branch for gun advocates – that would loosen restrictions on firearm transportation to allow owners to make certain deviations while driving between their homes and the shooting range or hunting grounds.

The bill allows for “deviations as are reasonably necessary," which are “collecting and discharging certain passengers, purchasing fuel, using a restroom, and contending with an emergency situation.”

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