The co-founder of one of the largest gun manufacturing companies in the U.S. once called for restrictions on high-capacity magazines, The New York Times reports.
William B. Ruger Sr., who founded the firearms company Sturm, Ruger & Company with Alexander McCormick Sturm in 1949, once called for legislation "to prohibit the possession of high capacity magazines."
"The best way to address the firepower concern is therefore not to try to outlaw or license many millions of older and perfectly legitimate firearms (which would be a licensing effort of staggering proportions) but to prohibit the possession of high capacity magazines," Ruger said in a letter to Congress in 1989.
"By a simple, complete, and unequivocal ban on large capacity magazines, all the difficulty of defining 'assault rifles' and 'semi-automatic rifles' is eliminated. The large capacity magazine itself, separate or attached to the firearm, becomes the prohibited item. A single amendment to Federal firearms laws could prohibit their possession or sale and would effectively implement these objectives."
Robert L. Wilson wrote in "Ruger and His Guns," that the gunmaker wanted the firearms industry "to take a responsible position to head off any further restrictions that might even have banned all semiautomatic firearms," according to the Times.
Ruger also once said in a 1992 interview with the Times that he could support a waiting period for handgun purchases.
"If the truth be known, I see no real harm in the concept," he said. "The trouble is, where does it end?"
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