US Attorney Links FRC Shooting to High-Capacity Magazines (But Not 'Hate Maps')

Either The Hill’s reporting here is dishonestly incomplete, or the US attorney prosecuting the Family Research Council shooting is using the case to make a foolish political point.

The U.S. Attorney’s office is using a successful guilty plea in a Washington, D.C., shooting case to press for more regulations on high-capacity gun magazines.

On Wednesday, a Virginia man pleaded guilty to three felonies, including a terrorism charge, for shooting a security guard at the Family Research Council (FRC) in downtown Washington last year.

U.S. Attorney Ronald Machen said the attack, which was motivated by the group’s opposition to same-sex marriage, was evidence that gun magazine sizes should be limited — a move President Obama and many Democrats have been pushing recently.“This case highlights the dangers of access to high-capacity magazines that allow killers to inflict carnage on a mass scale in the blink of an eye,” said Machen in a statement following the guilty plea.

Really? He was carrying a semiauto 9 mm with two full magazines and 50 more rounds in his backpack. Supposing 10 round capacity (the Hill doesn’t specify), seventy rounds isn’t much, and most of what he had was not in any magazine. One round well aimed is enough to kill. A six-shooter against unarmed victims can mass kill quickly. So can a sword or a knife. The fact is, he was stopped. The fact is, he used a political “hate map” to target the FRC. How would the magazine capacity have made any difference? The man is a terrorist, full stop. Limit magazine sizes, he’ll obtain an illegal magazine. Or use some other weapon. It’s the person, not the inanimate object, that matters.

It’s the US attorney’s job to prosecute the person in the case before him, not turn turn the case into an assault on the Second Amendment.

The Hill doesn’t even get around to mentioning the SPLC connection until nearly the end of the story. Their story doesn’t mention the “hate map” that the terrorist used, at all.

Thankfully, the building housing the FRC’s offices has a guard. He and the building manager stopped the gunman.

Some of us out here can’t afford armed guards. We are our own armed guards.