TRENTON – Senate Majority Leader Loretta Weinberg issued the following statement today on final passage of legislation (S-993) she sponsored that will reduce the legal maximum capacity of ammunition magazines to 10 rounds. The bill now heads to the desk of the governor:
“High capacity magazines have been the weapon of choice in mass shootings for a reason. From Tucson to Aurora to Newtown, they were used to claim as many victims as possible as quickly as possible. This bill will save lives because fewer bullets will mean fewer victims. It will also better ensure that if an active shooter situation occurs in our state, that reloading will offer a critical window of time to take down the shooter or for potential victims to escape. This happened in numerous incidents. At Sandy Hook Elementary School, 11 children were able to escape when the gunman stopped to reload. We know that we cannot prevent all gun violence, but we can take action to reduce the number of victims if a tragedy occurs.
“Last year, I promised the parents of Newtown victims that I would work to move this through the Legislature to better ensure that families in our state did not have to suffer the same way they did. Today, we have fulfilled that promise. Banning high-capacity magazines is a responsible and reasonable way to protect the public, and to do so without infringing on the rights of law-abiding gun owners. I urge the governor to consider the impact this bill could have on saving innocent lives, and to sign it into law immediately.”