Fact Check: Amy Klobuchar Falsely Claims Magazine Ban Would’ve Saved Lives in El Paso

Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) claimed during the September 12, 2019, Democrat debate that a magazine capacity ban would have saved lives during the El Paso, Texas, shooting.

Klobacher’s claim is false; here is why:

Following the April 16, 2007, Virginia Tech attack—in which 32 people were killed by a shooter armed with two handguns—gun controllers argued that a “high capacity” magazine ban would have reduced the attacker’s ability to kill. However, Virginia Tech put together a review board to assess the matter and returned judgement that a “high capacity” ban would have made little, if any, difference.

Breitbart News reported the review board’s finding on December 30, 2012, with the board indicating that forcing the attacker to use ten-round magazines instead of 15-round magazines “would have not made that much difference in the incident.”

The reason it would not have made a difference is because the shooter had two things on his side: 1. The element of surprise. 2. He was the only person with a gun. Combined, these two points mean he had all the time he needed to pause and reload, regardless of the number of rounds his magazines held.

We saw a similar situation in the Parkland school shooting, where the attacker was the only one with a gun, thus he had time to stop his attack five times in order to reload. Whether the magazines are ten-, 15-, or 30-round, the capacity is not an issue when there is time to pause and reload.

The shooter in El Paso was not guaranteed he would be the only one with a gun, but he had the element of surprise. And that meant he had time as well.

AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com. Sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange.