The Des Moines City Council and two Polk County supervisors this week asked their staffs to explore bans on certain gun accessories just days after a public works employee killed 12 people at a city building in Virginia Beach, Virginia.

“This has gotten way out of hand,” Supervisor Angela Connolly said Tuesday at a supervisors meeting.

Supervisor Matt McCoy said state law prohibits supervisors from enacting any type of gun control, but he believes supervisors could act on high-capacity magazines and “trigger activators” like bump stocks.

Des Moines Councilman Josh Mandelbaum offered the same rationale Monday when the Des Moines City Council agreed to consider a ban on the possession of high-capacity magazines and bump stocks.

Mandelbaum asked the city's legal team to draft two ordinances by the council’s July meeting. The panel voted unanimously to approve his motion.

“There is no reason for people to have high-capacity magazines or bump-stocks,” Mandelbaum said.

State Sen. Jake Chapman, R-Adel, promised to push back on the efforts, saying he would be willing to file a bill to "clarify" the state code that he said prevents such bans at a local level.

Large magazines more common than bump stocks

High-capacity magazines are generally defined as magazines that hold more bullets than what's normally standard for the given firearm. Bump stocks, which were used in the 2017 Las Vegas mass shooting, are add-ons that allow semi-automatic guns to fire nearly as fast as machine guns.

Spokesmen for the Des Moines Police Department and Polk County Sheriff's Office, however, said their officers don't typically come across bump stocks on the street.

On high-capacity magazines, Lt. Heath Osberg, with the sheriff's office, said deputies usually come across magazines in the guns they're meant for.

That's not always the case in Des Moines, said Sgt. Paul Parizek, the Des Moines police spokesman. Officers will sometimes recover after-market magazines that can hold up to twice the normal number of bullets, he said.

"We encounter those relatively often," he said. "... There's no need for those in an urban environment; there's no need for those in our neighborhoods."

He mentioned a May 20 incident in which officers detained several juveniles in the area of 13th Street and College Avenue on Des Moines' north side. One of the three guns recovered was equipped with an extended magazine holding 30 bullets instead of the standard 14, Parizek said.

► More:Beto O'Rourke campaign thanks Des Moines for exploring ban on high-capacity magazines, bump stocks

During Monday night's meeting, Mandelbaum didn’t specify the number of rounds in a magazine that he would consider “high capacity.” He said Tuesday that the city should look at other magazine restrictions across the United States and take from their best practices.

Monday night’s City Council meeting came three days after the Virginia Beach massacre. Police said the gunman, a city employee who had turned in his two-weeks notice before the attack, had brought numerous extended magazines along with his .45-caliber handgun, equipped with a silencer. The man was killed in a shootout with police.

It was the deadliest mass shooting so far this year.

► More:A 'woman of God,' a Scottish music lover: These are the victims of Virginia Beach shooting

Mandelbaum, who works as an environmental attorney, said the Virginia shooting hit close to home because it happened at a building similar to Des Moines’ municipal offices. “We have a unique ability to take action,” he said.

Senator, lobbyist question legality

Chapman said Iowa code expressly prohibits political subdivisions like cities and counties from adopting gun restrictions that conflict with state law.

Chapman said that magazines are a necessary part of a functioning gun, rather than accessories. He said the measures are a "false sense of security."

"As I go back and read the code section ... it's clear they can't do it, but that doesn’t stop them from breaking the law," he said. "Just like speed limit doesn’t stop a speeder, the state code doesn't stop them."

Richard Rogers, who sits on the Iowa Firearms Coalition board of directors, said, "The intent of the legislation has been clear since 1990," that only the state can regulate guns, "to prevent an unworkable patchwork of firearms laws."

Rogers, also a lobbyist for the IFC, said the state code should be "clarified and strengthened."

"We will oppose this should it go forward," Rogers said.

Chapman said he expected the debate to be decided by the courts. He said he would introduce a bill to "clarify the language" if necessary.

'We're not coming after every gun'

The federal government and a number of cities and states have banned bump stocks. Gun rights groups have challenged the federal ban but have yet to upend it. Several other states and cities — Aurora, Illinois, for example — have banned high-capacity magazines.

“And before the emails start, we’re not coming after every gun in town,” Councilman Chris Coleman said Monday. “We’re not trying to change your way of life. But we’re going to protect our citizens from mass shootings.”

Coleman and Mandelbaum said they'd each gotten a mix of praise and condemnation in their inboxes, while some complaints went to the wrong city, altogether.

Parizek said the conversation around the proposed measures has nothing to do with the Second Amendment or the right to carry firearms. The concern is people with criminal intent who have high-capacity magazines or bump stocks, he said, not lawful and responsible gun owners.

Councilwoman Connie Boesen also asked for an evaluation of the security measures at city facilities to see if any enhancements are needed.