In wake of Tucson shooting, Ellison, McCollum back gun control bill

Reps. Keith Ellison and Betty McCollum are cosponsoring a bill that would ban large-capacity ammunition feeding devices like the one used by Arizona gunman Jared Loughner. The bill would ban magazines that carry more than 10 rounds of ammunition.

The Large Capacity Ammunition Feeding Device Act was introduced by Democrat Carolyn McCarthy of New York, whose husband was killed and son injured in a 1993 shooting.

“I know what it’s like to have tragedy brought to your life in a split second by a madman with high-capacity ammunition magazines,” Rep. McCarthy said in a statement on Thursday. “I’m working to stop it from happening again. We need comprehensive reform to reduce the number of people hurt or killed by gunfire in America, but one simple way we can do that is by keeping the worst tools of mass murder away from the general public. This nation has come together before to support this simple, commonsense measure, and it is the law in several states right now. It is a small sacrifice that law-abiding gun owners can make once again in order to increase everyone’s safety.”

Jared Loughner, who killed six and left more than a dozen wounded, including Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, attempted to reload his weapon with a 30-round magazine before being tackled to the ground.

The bill would ban the sale or possession of “a magazine, belt, drum, feed strip, or similar device that has a capacity of, or that can be readily restored or converted to accept, more than 10 rounds of ammunition.”

People who own such a device prior to the enactment of the bill are grandfathered in, and the bill makes exceptions for law enforcement.