TRENTON — Five fewer bullets in an ammunition magazine could mean the difference between life and death, two parents of Sandy Hook school shooting victims said today.

“Our shooter brought ten 30-round magazines. 300 bullets. 300 rounds. Fired off 154 of them in less than four minutes. But 11 kids were able to escape from my son’s classroom when he stopped to reload and had an issue,” Nicole Hockley, whose six-year-old son Dylan was killed in the December 2012 Connecticut elementary school shooting in which 28 people died, told The Star-Ledger today. “My son wasn’t so lucky. He was shot five times. But 11 kids survived purely because he had to change his magazine.”

Hockley and Mark Barden, whose seven-year-old son Daniel was killed in the shooting, are in Trenton today to advocate for a bill (A2006) to reduce the permitted size of ammunition magazines, from 15 rounds to 10.

Another Sandy Hook parent, Neil Heflin, will join Hockley and Barden at a press conference this afternoon with legislative leaders.

The ammunition magazine bill stalled last year as Democrats in the state Legislature passed a flurry of other gun-related measures in response to Sandy Hook. Senate President Stephen Sweeney (D-Gloucester) had refused to put the measure up for a vote. But now he’s willing to advance it, and plans to participate in the press conference.

“I think it was something he believed in then,” Barden said. “He just indicated that the timing wasn’t right then, and that he promised to bring it back up when the timing was. And that’s exactly what he did. He did keep his word and we want to show our appreciation for that.”

Barden and Hockley are staff members of Sandy Hook Promise, an organization that seeks to reduce gun violence through lobbying and that financially aids victims of gun violence and their families. The two said they’ve traveled to at least nine states to promote legislation.

New Jersey has some of the strictest gun laws in the nation. And Hockley and Barden said they’re being careful not to pick a political fight on the hot button issue.

“We’re not interested in fighting. We’re interested in winning. And for us that means savings lives, protecting our children and building a better future for them,” Hockley said.

The proposal to further restrict the size of ammunition magazines, however, has drawn fierce opposition from gun rights advocates. And while Democratic legislative leaders would be unlikely to hold a press conference in support of it if they didn’t have the votes to pass it, its future is less certain once it reaches Republican Gov. Chris Christie’s desk.

Christie – who is considered a likely candidate for president in 2016 -- has vetoed several pieces of gun control legislation, including a ban on the .50 caliber rifle that he had previously called for.

But Hockley and Barden said they don’t see why Christie would veto this bill.

“From what we can see it’s enjoying a lot of bipartisan support,” Barden said. “It would stand to reason that he would support what his state wants.”

In addition to the ammunition magazine bill, Democrats plan to take up legislation (A989) to loosen restrictions on how gun owners transport firearms, allowing for "reasonable" deviations between their home and the firing range or hunting grounds.

"If someone’s doing practice shooting and they need to stop off to fill their car with gas on the way home… There’s nothing wrong with it," Hockley said.

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