Despite ban, Baltimore police recover more guns with high-capacity mags

Baltimore police confiscated more guns with high-capacity magazines in 2016 than any period of time during the last seven years, despite a four-year-old Maryland ban on the magazines’ sale and manufacture.

Approximately 22 percent of all recovered guns had high capacity magazines, 4 percentage points greater than numbers from 2013, the bloody year that led lawmakers to pass the high-capacity magazine ban.

Police say criminals prefer larger magazines, as they can fire off more rounds before having to reload. A Baltimore Sun investigation last year showed that corpses with at least 10 gunshot wounds have doubled in the past decade.

So far in 2017, the number of shootings and homicides has increased by 40 percent in Baltimore, coming after an awful 2016 that saw the second highest number of homicides on record.

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