New York's Seven Bullet Magazine limit will shortly become history

William Jacobson has an extremely accurate discussion of the issue available here:

. . . The limit almost certainly was unconstitutional, as it amounted to a de facto ban on most handguns. So it had to go, either by legislation or the courts.
But why via the budget?
Lumping it in with the budget deprives opponents of the opportunity to make the gun law a separate issue and to point out the haste with which the legislature acted.
Most important, this maneuver deprives opponents of the gun law the chance to vote against changing the 7-round limit in isolation? Huh, you say.
The limit is unworkable as the Governor admits, and makes a mockery of the entire gun law. By keeping the limit in place, opponents of the gun law in general would have created a situation where the gun law all but imploded of its own weight. . . .

 I was going to make the same points, but I couldn't do a better job than he has done.

Jacob Sullum on "The Threat Posed by Gun Magazine Limits"

Jacob has an interesting piece here on the constitutionality of the new New York State gun laws.

as Gov. Andrew Cuomo put it last week, "Nobody needs 10 bullets to kill a deer."  

That might count as an argument if the right to keep and bear arms were all about killing deer. But as the Supreme Court has recognized, the Second Amendment is also about defense against individual aggressors, foreign invaders, and tyrannical government.  

Toward those ends, the Court said, the Second Amendment guarantees the right to own weapons "in common use for lawful purposes," which clearly include guns capable of firing more than 10 rounds (and certainly more than seven) without reloading. The Glock 17, one of the most popular handguns in America, comes with a 17-round magazine. One of the most popular rifles, the AR-15 (a style made by several manufacturers), comes with a 30-round magazine.  

Measured by what people actually buy and use, magazines that hold more than 10 rounds are hardly outliers. In fact, there are tens (if not hundreds) of millions already in circulation, which is one reason new limits cannot reasonably be expected to have much of an impact on people determined to commit mass murder. . . .

Gov Andrew Cuomo's definition of an assault weapon

Cuomo wants to go after "high powered" rifles such as the Bushmaster.  If a .223 caliber gun is considered "high powered," one has to wonder what type of rifles will be allowed.

“I say to you forget the extremists. It’s simple — no one hunts with an assault rifle. No one needs 10 bullets to kill a deer and too many people have died already,” Cuomo said. 

 No, but you can need that many bullets for self-defense.  The problem is that once a gun can take a magazine, it can take a magazine of any size.  Magazines are simple metal boxes with a spring in them and they are very easy to make and they soon may become even easier.  Might as well ban all semi-automatic guns that accept magazines.  Problem is that would limit people's ability to defend themselves.

Jacob Sullum has a nice discussion here.

It is not clear what the Times means by "high-powered rifles." The definition of "assault weapon" has nothing to do with caliber, muzzle velocity, firing rate, or the number of rounds that can be fired before reloading (although a separate provision of New York's law bans magazines holding more than 10 rounds if they were made after September 13, 1994, as did the federal law). The reference to "high-powered rifles" suggests that "assault weapons" are distinguished by their killing capacity, which is not true, since their defining characteristics are essentially aesthetic. To muddy matters further, the Times says manufacturers who obey legislators' dictates concerning the appearance of their guns "have altered their products to circumvent the law," which makes no sense at all when you think about it. The law says you can't sell a rifle that accepts a detachable magazine and has two or more of those five suspect features, so manufacturers stopped selling such rifles in New York. That is complying with the law, not circumventing it. . . .

Further note.

New York's effort was hastened further by the Christmas Eve killings of two firefighters in western New York by a man who set his neighborhood on fire, lay in wait with a high-powered rifle for responders, shot them and killed himself. Webster residents related to the firefighters were honored guests at the State of State address. . . .

Notice that as a convicted felon it was illegal for the shooter in Webster to have any guns.

Cuomo announces massive new gun control measures

This sentence in today's New York Times caught my attention:

Gun rights advocates argue that Mr. Cuomo is wrong to focus his attention on assault weapons; of 769 homicides in New York State in 2011, only five were committed with rifles of any kind, according to the State Division of Criminal Justice Services. . . .