magazines, pre-ban vs. post-ban questions

[ID-shooting]

Pardon the silly question please.

I live in a no-ban state so some of this seems odd to me.

I was at the local gun show yesterday and came across a dude selling old GI (O-Kay Industries) STANAG mags. 30-rounders with black followers and in decent condition, just light use scratches on the outside and clean on the inside. Anyway, he was asking $5.00 each so I grabbed a sack full and moved on.

I was putting them away at home and saw the date markings, all are 6-91. Again, there is no ban in Idaho so once the 94-04 ban expired we quit paying attention to such things.

So, what is the significance of having pre-ban, as some of you put it, magazines. Is this something that those in non-freedom states find difficult to obtain? Something I should box up and save for a rainy day? Or shoot them till they wear out and toss them to the side?

 

[ugaarguy]

They may be grandfathered in some states that have capacity limits, but most of those states have now even prohibited bringing in so-called pre-ban magazines. I'll leave this here in accessories for the time being, but if no definitive answers are posted I'll move it to Legal. There may be a state or two where those mags have some value.

 

[GetmeoutaCT]

The date had significance before the 10-year federal ban expired; during that period the date would have been useful because you could still have purchased those mags notwithstanding the pendency of the ban. With respect to that ban, you could still purchase mags manufactered prior to the relevant date (which escapes me now).

The federal ban now having expired, the date is only of historical interest for purposes of that ban (and useful I suppose to know the age of the mags).

Regarding states with hi-cap bans (including my own), I am not aware of any grandfathering provisions based upon the date of manufacture; without such, you could not purchase those mags in any such state regardless of when they were manufactured. At least in CT, it is (or was) the date of purchase that is significant.

I'll stay away from the reason and logic arguments against such bans. I'll be here all night otherwise.

 

[Jim K]

If those are actually GI surplus mags, dating them might have been part of the contract, not for legal reasons in civvie land, but for tracking purposes in the military, like knowing if some mandated change had been made.

Jim

 

[Outlaw Man]

I'd suspect it's something more like what Jim said. The US Scary Weapons ban went into effect in 1994. I'd say it would be unlikely anyone thought to stamp them 3 years prior.

Unless they stamped them with a fraudulent date...