Competitive shooting and federal mag restrictions

[Sauer Grapes]

I didn't shoot much USPSA last year, but plan on getting back full bore this summer.
It struck me, that if they {the government} limit magazine capacity, what is that going to do to USPSA?
I got all geared up to shoot limited division this year, now what??? :banghead:

 

[mgmorden]

I wouldn't worry about it much at this point. Right now a restriction looks unlikely until at least the 2014 elections. Assuming something does pass, if its got a sunset again I expect USPSA to not modify the rules until it potentially expires.

If it doesn't have a sunset, they'll likely wait at least a few years for a potential SCOTUS challenge of the law.

I will say that if such a law were to pass, and it either held up to challenge or sufficent time passed, I would expect them to EVENTUALLY cap all divisions at 10 rounds. Realistically you can't expect the sport to grow or continue when your new shooters coming onboard have to pay inflated prices for magazines (if only manufacture was banned) or couldn't obtain them at all (if transfer was banned too).

As I said though - I don't think we have any laws to worry about for at least 2 years and I doubt if you have existing equipment you'd have to worry for at least another 3-4 years after that.

Also, thought I fully intend to shoot Limited eventually, I've shot nothing but Production since I started about a year and a half ago and I've had a blast. I certainly don't wanna see any laws passed, but if they do I'll still have fun shooting USPSA with 10-round limits.

On the plus side - a 10-round limit would have little impact on Steel Challenge and none on IDPA.

 

[Jim Watson]

USPSA behavior during AWB 1994 was scary.
The official recommendation from Sedro Wooley was for new members to shop for pre ban magazines so they could compete with established and equipped shooters.
Yeah, buddy, how many of those $100 magazines do you want?

If you didn't want to pay a premium price for full capacity magazines, all you had to do was go to a good size match and pick "repair kits" off the vendors' tables. Assemble all you feel you need. By the last day of a match, the bags were conveniently banded together so you didn't have to waste time picking parts out of several different bins.

Read in the gunzines about "cloning" magazines. Take a magazine apart and put new follower, spring, base, and lock plate in the old tube. Put the old spring in a new tube with other new parts, etc. Voila, you have five or six magazines where you had one before.

I was surprised nobody in BATF caught on and ran a sting on some of those folks. Or maybe they did and just figured they had bigger fish to fry, like the Clinton program to run kitchen table FFLs out of the game.