From: booth@mdd.comm.mot.com (Greg Booth)
Newsgroups: talk.politics.guns
Subject: magazine limits
Date: 11 Apr 92 23:43:44 GMT
Organization: Motorola - Mobile Data Division; Richmond, BC



Copied with permission from the NFA Point Blank.
Vol IX Number 3, 1992, March

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 	**** We have the minister's magazine-alteration paper ***

The CPFO (Chief Provincial Firearms Officer) 
of Quebec received this paper from the Minister's office,
and passed it to the Surete de Quebec, who called in experts
from the Recreational Firearms Community. Robert Marcil, 
President of the Quebec Federation de Tir and NFA Quebec President,
wrote an excellant rebuttal paper, which was studied by Quebec
before taking its position on Campbell's proposals.

Campbell's FCB (Firearms Control Bureaucracy) writers demonstrated 
technical incompetence by requiring alll owners of "over-capacity
magazines" to block them by inserting two rivet-like dome-headed
pins through each magazine from side to side, blocking follower
travel to limit the capacity.

Quotes from Campbell's FCB Incompetents:

"...a pinning method has been developed that may be feasible for...
magazines made of metal...Plastic magazines are more difficult
to modify and may have to be destroyed or surrendered." Of course,
no compensation for losses is offered.

"The magazine body is generally of stamped mild steel..." Hogwash.
Magazine bodies are generally made of stamped heat-treated
spring-hard steel, not mild steel.

"They (the pins) may be used on pistol and rifle magazines." The protruding
domed heads of the pins would require cutting away the magazine
well (frame)  for insertion into almost all handguns, and many rifles.
Doing that is an intolerable safety hazard which can result in blowups;
stress pints aren't always obvious.

"To remove the pins would require exceptional technical skill...The pins
cannot be removed." Removal would take 30 seconds per pin, using
any decent grinder; and any crook could do it.

"It will not affect the ability to clean the magazine." It makes
disassembly impossible, causing severe problems for cleaning;
baked-on carbon does not dissolve when rinsed with solvents.

"The procedure for insertion is simple enough for most owners to do
it themselves." Certainly nearly anyone could insert these
pins; but the required locatoin for the pins is extremely difficult to
locate, and the shifting of stress factors cannot be calculated--
but both of those will affect reliability, and may render the
magazine totally unworkable. Magazines are very precisely engineered,
and any minor alteration is likely to cause problems. The FCB
methodology is simple-minded and impractical.

Campbell's FCB did not mention the problem of cracks and crack
propagation (expectable following amateur drilling) or 
recognize the existence of drum, spool, composite, or other
magazines. The entire paper betrays an abysmal lack of
technical knowledge.

Such "pinning" automatically voids any warranty on any firearm
or magazine so abused, so no *reputable* gunsmith would do such
work. Smith and Wesson has estimated that could produce properly
modified new magazines for Canada -- at $100 per magazines.

Campbell's complete paper, plus the papers by NFA Quebec President
Robert Marcil and NFA National President Dave Tomlinson
(which reveal her office's technological incompetence) are available
(15 pages, $2 postage & handling) from NFA Edmonton.

-------------------------------------------------
NFA
Box 1779, Edmonton, AB, Canada
T5J 2P1




-- 
Greg Booth BSc                        | Diligentia-Vis-Celeritas
BCAA-PCDHF-BCWF-NFA-NRA-IPSC-BCFSS    |  	Incolumitas
Motorola Mobile Data Division         | 
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