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Nicole Hockley speaks about her son Dylan, who was killed in the 2012 Newtown Ct., school shooting

(Darryl Isherwood/ NJ.com)

Senate President Steve Sweeney said today that he is proud of the change of heart he's had on a proposal to limit the size of an ammunition magazine to 10, down from the current level of 15.

In April, in the heat of a concerted effort on the part of legislative Democrats to pass sweeping gun control reform in the state, Sweeney balked at allowing the magazine restriction to come up for a vote, calling the current limit "effective."

But at an emotionally fraught press conference today held to introduce another attempt at passing the magazine restriction, Sweeney said after meeting with the families of the children slain in the Newtown, Ct. school shooting changing his mind was an easy calculation.

"I'm very much pro-sportsmen," Sweeney said. "But when you look in the eyes of the parents that I did... I'm a father," a Sweeney said. "There's no excuse there's no reason. You have to look deep inside yourself as elected officials. Will this make it better? Yes. I'm a human being too and when you talk to families of victims, it's pretty hard when you weigh it out – inconvenience to a life? It wasn't that hard."

Parents of two of the slain children were on hand for the press conference and both gave an emotional account of their loss as they thanked the legislature for agreeing to pass they measure they say is merely common sense.

"In Newtown we learned the brutal truth about the devastation that a high capacity magazine can cause," said Nicole Hockley, whose six-year old son Dylan was among those killed that day. The person that killed my son carried 10, 30-round, large capacity magazines into Sandy Hook Elementary School. 300 rounds. He chose to leave the smaller capacity magazines at home. He chose to have the best kill rate possible by using high capacity magazines, which only exist to deliver as many bullets as possible in the shortest time frame. In approximately four minutes he shot 154 bullets and killed 26 women and children. Five of those bullets hit my son and in an instant my precious boy was gone. But in the time it took the shooter to reload ...in Dylan's classroom, 11 children had the opportunity to escape."

Hockley wondered how many more children might have escaped had the shooter been forced to reload three times more often than he was.

"How man more children would still be alive, from both classrooms," she wondered. "Perhaps my son would still be alive."

Mark Barden, whose son Daniel also was killed at Sandy Hook, held up a picture of his son as he asked lawmakers to keep in mind not just the politics and policy of the issue, but the faces.

Barden said dropping the limit to 10 will allow gun owners to do everything the currently do with their weapon, but still help save lives should an incident like the Newtown shooting happen again.

"This is a common sense measure that's above politics," he said. "It's about safety."

And while Sweeney and the advocates for more gun control believe it's common sense and does not restrict anyone's right to own a gun, many gun owners believe it's nothing but feel-good legislation.

"Criminals and madmen ignore all gun restrictions, so the only thing this will accomplish is to interfere with lawful self-defense," said Scott Bach, Executive Director Association of New Jersey Rifle & Pistol Clubs. "The state should not force a family facing a gang home invasion to fumble around in the dark changing magazines - they should be free to have as much ammunition as possible at the ready. This proposal fails to make the basic distinction between legal gun owners and criminals who misuse firearms, and will cost lives."

The bill to drop the limit to 10 passed in the Assembly last year but never came for a vote in the Senate. This year, it has been introduced by Senators Loretta Weinbger and Nia Gill and has Sweeney's support. In the Assembly, Majority Leader Lou Greenwald is again the champion. It is expected to pass in both houses but it's unclear if the governor will sign it.