Sandy Hook parents urge N.J. lawmakers to limit magazine capacity of firearms

    The parents of some of the children killed in the Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings in Connecticut are urging New Jersey lawmakers to pass legislation to reduce the maximum capacity of gun magazines.

    Nicole Hockley, whose 6-year-old son died in the school shootings, told legislators that 11 children in her son’s classroom escaped while the gunman reloaded.

    “I’m one of those parents who ask myself every day, every minute, if those magazines had held 10 rounds instead of 30, forcing the shooter to reload many more times, would my son be alive today?” she said Tuesday.

    Limiting the amount of ammo in gun clips will help save lives, said Nelba Marquez-Greene, who lost her daughter in the Sandy Hook massacre.

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    “What happened in Newtown can happen in any town,” she said. “In an instant any mother in America can be in my shoes, and no one in America should have to feel that pain.”

    NRA reaction

    Darin Goens, the New Jersey liaison for the National Rifle Association, dismissed the idea that reducing gun magazine capacity would deter violent crime.

    “It’s completely implausible that a shooter is going to go into a school with a 10-round magazine to follow the law only to commit murder,” he said.

    Sponsors of a Senate bill to limit the amount of ammo in gun clips to 10 bullets are hoping the measure will be considered before the current legislative session ends in January.

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