Buying 20 or 30 round AR15 magazines in MA

[hminsky]

Are there any restrictions on the magazine capacity when ordering magazines for the AR15 rifle in MA? Any restrictions on a large capacity (> 10 rounds) for a .22 rifle?

I have tried reading through all of the laws I can find and I still cannot figure out what the real story is.

 

[JonJ]

They HAVE to be pre '94 AKA "PreBan". .22 tubular fed (rifle) mags are the exception.

 

[hminsky]

Can anyone suggest a reasonably priced source of these 'pre ban' magazines in MA? I'm planning to be at the Lake Morey gun show next weekend, and am wondering if that would be a good place to get some larger capacity magazines for my AR and my Ruger 10/22

 

[Supermoto]

Four seasons in Woburn has some, I think $19 a pop, price goes down if you buy alot of them

 

[ajw45]

Pre-ban ar mags?

 

[Len-2A Training]

Pre-ban ar mags?

Yes!

Those are reasonably easy to come by as pre-ban, especially the military contract mags.

Also, I have seen a few "no ban" AR15 20 rd mags and it looks like they changed the design to a banana mag (like all the 30 rd mags were/are). Not sure if every mfr did this or only a few of them redesigned the mags.

 

[ajw45]

Oops, forgot to complete my post. www.ar15mags.com has a whole load of NIW pre-bans.....

 

[Pilgrim]

.22 tubular fed (rifle) mags are the exception

Interesting isn't it that how the bullets are stacked in the gun determines if you can have more than 10 rounds.

Let's see now, the lawyer says , well he was shot with 11 bullets that line up end to end so that's ok. Boy, it's a good thing those 11 bullets weren't stacked side by side on top of each other or we'd really have a crime here.

 

[Scrivener]

"Interesting isn't it that how the bullets [sic] are stacked in the gun determines if you can have more than 10 rounds."

How the cartridges are stored is not really the criteria; perceived lethality is. Tubular magazines are very slow to load, compared to detachable magazines. Also, .22 rifles are not exactly a "weapon of choice" for criminals, but ARE for kids getting their first gun. So, in a rare flash of competence and reason, the legislature exempted tube-fed .22s.

 

[KMaurer]

I'll have to disagree that there's any basis that close to rationality for the distinction between tubular magazines and others. Although there's no way to prove it either way, unless we could discover HCI's internal memoranda, I'd bet that it eas simply a recognition of the reality they faced. If they were going to lump all those lever action .22's into the ban, it would have had a much lower chance of passing. Even so, they were forced to accept the sunset provision in order to get the necessary votes. Without that battle to fight, they would have come back for tubular magazines and a bunch of other stuff in the next round.

Even so, we've got the absurd case of California and some other states maintaining that evil-looking guns such as the Hammerli 280 are in fact "assault weapons", and thereby the "weapon of choice" of street gangs and terrorists, simply because the magazine isn't inside the grip.

Ken

 

[Jay G]

They HAVE to be pre '94 AKA "PreBan". .22 tubular fed (rifle) mags are the exception.

What's the ruling on the lever-action pistol caliber rifles? Some of the Winchesters and Marlins advertise 11, 12, or even 13 rounds of .38 special.

Now... Since the MA law was patterned after the AWB, and the AWB did not cover tube-fed magazines, are lever action rifles with long tubular magazines okay?

 

[Len-2A Training]

AWB covered ONLY semi-autos. Lever actions are not semi-autos!

Tube fed was specifically exempted.

 

[Jay G]

AWB covered ONLY semi-autos. Lever actions are not semi-autos!

Tube fed was specifically exempted.

Thanks Len. That's what I thought.

Phew. Looks like a shiny model 94 in .357/.38spl is still on the list...