Posted on 08/14/2013 8:09:01 AM PDT by rickmichaels
Demand for magazines that let you legally triple a semi-automatic rifle’s capacity is so great, Canadian suppliers can’t keep up.
Several hundred gun owners are on a Vancouver company’s back-order list for .50 Beowulf magazines. A New Brunswick start-up is dedicated to manufacturing them, Global News has learned.
The heavy Beowulf rifle, designed for five outsized .50-calibre bullets, is rare in Canada. But a loophole lets owners of semi-automatic rifles, who would otherwise be limited to a five-round magazine, legally load 15 smaller rounds into a magazine stamped as designed for a Beowulf rifle.
In March of 2011, an RCMP interpretation of firearms laws ruled that magazine limits apply only to the gun a magazine’s designed for, not to the gun it might be used in. This has created a number of exceptions to the original five-round limit enacted by Brian Mulroney’s government in the early 1990s in the wake of the Ecole Polytechnique mass killing in Montreal.
As a result of the RCMP ruling, five-, ten- or fifteen-round magazines may or may not be legal for semi-automatic rifles in Canada depending on what’s stamped on the side.
And demand for magazines that push the original limit outstrips supply.
A spokesperson for Vancouver-based Armtac, which lists the magazines for $45 and has them on back order, called online reports of a long waiting list “correct,” but said the exact number was “internal information.”
“I have no idea” why the high demand, Chris Kam said. “People like .50 Beowulf, and the magazine is made for that gun.”
Armtac lists a conversion kit that would let a gun owner create a Beowulf from an AR-15 rifle for $1,400, but it’s out of stock.
As for tripling the magazine’s capacity by using a lighter calibre, “I can’t comment on that,” Kam said. “The mags were designed and marketed for the .50 Beowulf upper. [The manufacturer] says the mechanism is designed for .50 Beowulf, and is not to be used for .223.”
Armtac’s Web site reinforces the warning, saying the magazine “is designed for the use .50 Beowulf ammunition only and not any calibre.”
On the other side of the country Press Check Ventures, based near the Maine border in Weston, N.B., is selling Canadian-made Beowulf-type magazines online for about $50 each.
The company did not respond to repeated requests for an interview.
In private online sales, the magazines go for as much as $250.
Global’s copy of the firearms registry, obtained last year before the long gun registry data was deleted, showed no Beowulf rifles registered in Canada at that time.
As far as Global News can tell, no Beowulf rifles are offered for sale in Canada. In late June, one was being offered in a private sale for $3,500.
30-round magazine legally possible, federal justice department confirms
How manufacturers describe their rifle magazines is crucial in determining what it is “designed for” and therefore how Ottawa regards it, says Ottawa-based firearms lawyer Solomon Friedman.
For example: In principle, because Canadian law doesn’t limit magazine capacity for rifles with hand-operated actions, that would make it possible to legally fire a 30-round magazine from a semi-automatic rifle. The only reason it hasn’t happened yet is that the makers have promoted the hand-operated rifles as accepting magazines designed for the AR-15 semi-automatic rifle.
“That’s a case where you can see the importance of language used in marketing materials to firearm classification,” Friedman said. “Now, if someone were to make a completely new design, with its own proprietary magazine, that also happened to fit the AR-15, that might be a different story.”
In an e-mail, a spokesperson for the federal Department of Justice confirmed Friedman’s position.
“Provided that the magazine was never designed to be used in a semi-automatic rifle, yes it would be legal,” Carole Saindon wrote. “The determination of whether a cartridge magazine would fall within the definition of a ‘prohibited device’ … is determined by the firearm that the cartridge magazine was designed for, and not by the type of firearm that it is ultimately used in.
“Magazines that are designed to be used in both semi-automatic firearms and other firearms that do not function in a semi-automatic manner, are considered to be ‘dual use’ magazines and are captured by the cartridge limitations.”
For Friedman and gun-rights activists, this is an argument for abandoning magazine limits altogether because they don’t work. But gun-control advocates see it differently.
“The simplest way to deal with that is to close the loophole and say, ‘No, you can’t.’ We don’t need the RCMP trying to interpret something that wasn’t contemplated by Parliament in the first place,” said NDP public safety critic Randall Garrison.
“If the government doesn’t update the [law], that’s what makes it possible for someone to circumvent it. It’s not the system that’s faulty.”
I’ve been waiting for 10 x 11-rnd mags for my Beowulf .50cal, from Alexander Arms, since Dec 23rd, 2012. I have 3 (feed-lips) modified 20-rnd AR-15 mags which hold 11-rnds, but AA has all proprietary equipment/ammo, and it takes forever to get stuff. In 2010, it took 6-7mos to get 10,000-rnds of .335gr and .350gr ammo.
I’m waiting for Surefire 60 round 5.56’rs to come down to a realistic price.
I wish Surefire would make 308 mags like the 556.
that would make my Siggy happy
“If the government doesn’t update the [law], that’s what makes it possible for someone to circumvent it. It’s not the system that’s faulty.”
Yep, he’s correct.
It is the whole notion of limiting magazine capacity that’s faulty.
First of all if the government limits magazine capacity the simplest solution for someone seeking to kill lots of people with a firearm is to carry lots of magazines. Yes is takes a second or two to change magazines but typically those who the killer is shooting at are far too raddled to take advantage of the opportunity.
Second the would be killer can get black market magazines. It is a simple and obvious fact that if some one is planning a killing spree they are not going to worry about laws governing the capacity of magazines. (Get real you nanny staters)
Third as a practical matter the really large magazines (over 20 rounds) are often prone to jams. This is inherent to the stronger springs necessary to push the rounds up and out of the magazine. So unless the would be killer is practiced at clearing jams it could be a lucky happenstance that a would be killer chose a large capacity magazine for his killing spree.
Finally the real solution to the spree killer problem is to allow your average law abiding citizen to freely carry a concealed weapon with out fear of harassment from the law. This does two things: First it puts a true fear in the mind of the would be killer that he will be shot down before he completes his goal (so in his mind why bother). Second if the would be mass murderer is not dissuaded from his killing spree by the reality of probable failure then there is a good chance that an armed citizen will cut short the spree killer’s carnage.
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