Via everybody's favorite gun news aggregator (Say Uncle) comes the startling revelation that public servant Dianna Degette (D-spicable) knows not about which she speaks. Here's a clip of the entire exchange:
Because doubling down seems somehow, in the parallel universe that a lot of public servants seem to live in, to be the best way to overcome an intellectual faux pas, Degette's office released a clarifying statement:
“The Congresswoman has been working on a high-capacity assault magazine ban for years, and has been deeply involved in the issue; she simply misspoke in referring to ‘magazines’ when she should have referred to ‘clips,’ which cannot be reused because they don’t have a feeding mechanism,” Johnson said. “Quite frankly, this is just another example of opponents of common-sense gun violence prevention trying to manipulate the facts to distract from the critical issue of keeping our children safe and keeping killing machines out of the hands of disturbed individuals. It’s more political gamesmanship that stands in the way of responsible solutions.”
It's very very simple.
A cartridge goes into a firearm, a bullet comes out.
A clip is used to load cartridges into a magazine, a magazine is used to load cartridges into a firearm.
Everything involved except the bullet, powder and primer can be reused. Many many times.
Jon Caldara, of the Independence Institute, has an even more kid friendly way of explaining things:
But her lack of knowledge about firearms related matters doesn't just extend to the mechanics; it also includes the use of firearms for personal defense. And her ignorance is rivaled by her insolence:
Here's an interview Degette did in late December:
Note that she keeps using the term "assault magazine" and seems to confuse them with cartridges ("...assault weapons and the ammunition...").
It's fairly obvious this public servant is ignorant of the mechanics of a type of device she is trying to regulate and/or proscribe. That she claims to have worked very hard on this legislation for years is a lie, or if true, very disconcerting.
Yet it won't stop her or even slow her down in her efforts. These folks don't really care about guns as they are. They're fine with certain types of people having guns. They just want undesirables to not have guns. and the kind of folks who would want semi-automatic rifles and pistols capable of using assault magazines" are clearly undesirable.
In short, Degette doesn't hate guns, she hates the gun culture and all that she thinks it represents.
The remarks about magazines being single use items as well as her callous response to a person's question about self defense were part of a forum the Denver Post held on national firearms legislation. If you have an hour and a half to spare you can watch the entire thing here: