VERNON — After reading Tom Finnell's history lesson on gun control, I was rather surprised at his statement, “If you can't down a deer with five rounds, you don't belong in the woods.”
It is true that federal regulation requires a shotgun must not be able to hold more than three rounds in its magazine when hunting any migratory bird, which includes woodcock.
However, semi-automatic shotguns, as well as pumps, are the firearms of preference, and their use is not prohibited.
Please note that the conservation order on spring snow geese has no restriction on magazine capacity due to the fact that biologists have shown that snow goose numbers have exploded due to overprotection in the past and the birds are literally eating themselves out of their habitat.
Hence, the idea is to remove as many of them as possible in the spring hunt.
Deer-hunting regulations vary from state to state. In many states, five rounds is the rule; however, the type of firearm used is the hunter's choice: bolt action, pump, semi-automatic (not full automatic), or lever action. It makes no difference as long as the capacity of five rounds is observed.
This brings me to make the point that many firearms, including the platform rifles - which are wrongly called “assault rifles” and which are full auto - can have magazines of any size. As I see it, the firearms are not the issue here. You control how many rounds are in the firearm with the magazine.
Magazine restrictions make more sense than anything else I've seen. Again, that's my opinion, and not that of everyone who owns firearms.