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Mass killers still have access to plenty of firepower under New York’s new assault-weapon ban.
These two Benelli MR1 rifles have equal killing power — yet the one at the top is illegal to buy because of its “military” grip while the other is perfectly fine under the gun law signed by Gov. Cuomo last night.
The law also bans magazines holding more than seven rounds, yet has no provision limiting the number of clips someone can buy.
So a Newtown- or Aurora-style mass-killer can simply bring dozens of legal-capacity clips, which could be swapped out in just a second or two during a shooting spree.
“A 30-round magazine is no more dangerous than two 15-round magazines, or more dangerous than three 10-round magazines, or more dangerous than six 5-round magazines,” said Jerold E. Levine, a Manhattan lawyer and gun-rights advocate.
“It takes only two seconds to change the magazine in a semiautomatic gun,” he said.
Benelli says its 37-inch-long MR1 Comfort-Tech Synthetic — with a suggested retail price of $1,469 — is “the best home defense available.”
With or without the now-illegal pistol grip, the MR1 uses Remington .223 bullets, which are about the size of AA batteries and are interchangeable with similar-sized NATO military cartridges.
“A real joy to shoot,” said a reviewer for Guns and Weapons for Law Enforcement magazine.
“Reliable, accurate . . . something undeniably different,” said a review in Guns and Ammo.
As he signed the bill, Cuomo scoffed at the idea that restricting magazine sizes won’t make the public any safer. He said curbing magazine size from the old limit of 10 bullets to the new limit of seven reduces “the capacity to kill lots of human beings in a short period of time.”
The new law includes several other restrictions on weapon design that gun-rights advocates were still digesting yesterday.
The law bars folding or telescoping rifle shoulder stocks. It also bars rifles with bayonet mounts and flash suppressors — which some gun enthusiasts consider no more than decoration anyhow.
Some gun-rights advocates were worried about the law’s ban on any rifle pistol grip “that protrudes conspicuously beneath the action of the weapon” — language that they worried could be broadly defined to include many common rifles.
Those who already own guns banned by the law may keep them so long as they register their weapons with the state, and submit themselves to State Police background checks.
The law also requires people buying ammunition to undergo background checks, and includes provisions aimed at limiting ammo and gun sales to people with mental illness.
“These gun-control schemes have failed in the past and will have no impact on public safety and crime,” the National Rifle Association said in a statement.
But Cuomo expressed pride in the law, which he signed a day before President Obama was to unveil his federal gun-law proposals.
“We can overpower the extremists with intelligence and with reason and with common sense, and that’s what we’re going to do,” Cuomo said.
He signed the bill after it passed the Assembly by 104-43. The bill passed the state Senate 43-18 Monday.
Tom King, a board member of the deep-pocketed and politically powerful NRA, warned that the dozen downstate Republican senators who supported the plan could pay when they seek re-election next year.
Even some supporters of the New York law say it’ll do little to curb crime without new federal regulations.
“The illegal guns coming in from other states are definitely still a problem,” said Jackie Hilly, executive director of New Yorkers Against Gun Violence.
“Eighty-five percent of crime guns in New York City are from sales in other states,” Hilly said. Statewide, about 60 percent of guns used in crime are from out of state, she said.
Additional reporting by Philip Messing and Lois Weiss