THE DAILY FUDD: E49: "Save hicap PISTOL-caliber magazines."

UPSHOT: Hicaps in pistol-caliber weapons are more important than in rifle-caliber arms, and so long as they are preserved, losses in rifle-caliber capacities have at least a chance of being restored.

From 2018, but with validity today: 

Increased urban and suburban life in America renders full-power rifles less practical and legally/politically defensible from a Blackstone defense right perspective (the essential focus of Heller), and makes pistol-caliber arms more fitting from a tactical perspective. They are more akin to the 1688/89 English Bill of Rights "blunderbuss" and Blackstone RKBA. Thus, it is easier to defend hicaps and AW features on them than on full-power rifles.

Pistol-caliber long guns can be described as "overgrown handguns," and can thus draw on Heller's pistol-centric decision, as well as being--along with home-defense shotguns--quite directly the modern descendants of the blunderbuss--"And Your Honor, blunderbusses have been in truth guaranteed since 1688."

Thus, a ready argument presents itself that the defensive nature of pistol-caliber arms in the present civilian setting overrides concerns over criminal use of AW-type features and components. It certainly would aid in at least raising the maximum capacity of pistol-caliber magazines. As I noted in TDF 46:

The fact is that, apart from low-end "hunting" rifles perhaps, handgun ownership far and away holds the best chance of getting the biggest 2A-related support, even--maybe especially--in Blue States. It's core Heller, and normal pistols are less "scary-looking" than most tactically-geared long guns. It is with handguns that escaping magazine capacity limits--or at least making them far more reasonable than the usual ten (twenty would cover virtually all "standard-capacity" ones)--has the best chance. 

Also noted there (drawing from TDF 22), and related to the increased urbanization of America, is the effect that gun ownership by LIBERALS might have in mitigation:

I confess, prior to the Steal--back when I thought the American people might actually stand against the tyranny that 2A purists had claimed was the target of their keeping of higher-end arms--I was much more inclined toward concern about civil war. I didn't want the enemy armed when we--per Federalist 46--had to kill them to save Western heritage. Now, though, with the American people failing, and the preservation of American and Western national heritage on the verge of becoming a subculture waiting for the time to rise and reestablish our rightful place, conditions on the ground require a shift-fire.

The idea of the liberal was that they--liberals--were key to retaining RKBA, essentially since they were the voting base of the liberals taking guns away. Yes, I know. And yet he made a point, which I acknowledged in a comment on his video:

As a Rightwing Patriot, I will say that you make a partial point on the effect of liberal gun ownership on liberal politicians, but only a partial point. The post-2YK/9-11 and 2020 growth in lower-end gun ownership--particularly handguns--can and should be used in preserving some base-level RKBA in coming years. But it will likely have no real effect on efforts against higher-end arms--ARs and the like. Things like PISTOL hicap bans might be combatted--liberals bought 9mm's with truly "standard capacity" mags, and might want to keep them), but semi-auto long guns and AW characteristics will continue to be targeted.

Continuing on, pistol-caliber arms can be distinguished tactically from full-power rifles in that the former's employment in defensive situations more often involves active movement. Someone facing an attack on the street and "bearing" a CCW piece will be seeking to move to a safer location, and a home defender with either pistol or carbine may well have to move from room to room to confront an intruder. Either situation makes reloading all the more difficult and risky.

Most, though not all, legitimate defense cases in situations where full-power rifles are most called for--e.g., Los Angeles in 1992 and Ferguson in 2014--involved set-position situations, where additional magazines can more readily, though of course not completely, compensate for lower capacity. 

On the Community Defense level--"social work"--a similar template applies for 2A civilian Militia action: As in home defense, pistol-caliber long guns benefit from larger capacities when holders act is support of law and order. As stated in TDF 46 regarding a characterization of PCCs as "semi-automatic submachine guns":

PCCs are shown to have "social work" value. It is of note that the Versailles Treaty actually treated SMGs as "police" weapons, and thus not as restricted to Weimar Germany as even Mauser 98s were. (This may account for the heavy use of MP-38/40s and other SMGs later in World War 2.) A similar distinction appears in American use of the Thompson SMG: The Army largely rejected it; with the Navy and Marines making only limited use of it. By and large, it was seen as being for police and criminals. (This would change, of course--see the pre-Heller CAN THE SIMPLE CITE BE TRUSTED?: LOWER COURT INTERPRETATIONS OF UNITED STATES V. MILLER AND THE SECOND AMENDMENT (guncite.com) and its discussion of the 1942 Cases decision.)

This historical background could serve the following:

1. Help make them "not military" in a liberal court's eyes.
2. Demonstrate their value as "posse" (low-level Militia) value in terms of civilian aiding of law enforcement:

3. Be a surrogate to full-power AW-types for gunners devoted to such things, helping to assuage those seeking those politically difficult arms and contributing to creation of a broader coalition.

Regarding full-power rifles, such weapons even with lower-capacity magazines, while far from ideal, retain some Militia efficacy with ten-round magazine limits. As with home defense, the likely deployment of 2A civilian Militia will be in set-position or other relatively sedentary conditions rather than fire-and-maneuver situations, facilitating reloading. And more significantly, hicap magazines could be issued to militiamen--especially if whoever manages to work a provision into a magazine ban to exempt pistol-caliber arms includes a far-looking provision for the RETENTION, not destruction, of any confiscated hicaps. (Such is reason for political and legislative ENGAGEMENT in the situation, not purist DISengagement.)

Even long past World War 2, some such arms remained in front-line issue for decades, despite their base weapons' obvious obsolescence, with some to this day held in mainline reserve armories.

Such arms, of course, have long been replaced in regular front-line service by every military establishment in the world (save perhaps those of a few microstates, or countries probably warranting the label of "shithole"), and for good reason. They are a generation or two behind the times in the armament world. TDF has posted much about these sorts of arms and their situations then and now. However, they are not--regardless of propaganda from whatever source--utterly ineffectual so long as that same frontline service depends on projectile-firing arms (and maybe even after that--TDF article and fun video).

A Patriot focused on the practical end of the RKBA issue--Blackstone defense and the efficacy of the American 2A civilian Militia--will both dread the loss of full-power rifle hicaps, AND care about, understand, and appreciate the value of retaining what can be retained. 

Those seeing RKBA as nothing but personal gratification and libertarian indulgence may ignore it--and actually work to cost the American EVERYTHING in this regard.

This series is about RETAINING REQUISITE FIREPOWER. Some hills are not worth dying on--that is, some issues are not worth losing the entire war in a futile effort to defend. (And some issues raised by the libertarians and purists are simply wrong!) RKBA is as practical to life as making a living and caring for one's family--be it nuclear, extended, or one lone "gun nut" Trump supporter and his cat.

It is NOT about political play or personal indulgence. And those factors in some people's lives should not be allowed to cause a catastrophic failure of 2A, and thus deprive those American families of the GUARANTEE AND REALITY of their Blackstone defense ability, and destroy the AMERICAN AND WESTERN HERITAGE symbolized and potentially defended by our Right to Arms.

TDF INDEX: Cats, Guns, and National Security: THE DAILY FUDD index.  https://catsgunsandnationalsecurity.blogspot.com/2021/03/the-daily-fudd-index.html