Warning: If you're a fan of Wayne LaPierre and his stewardship of the National Rifle Association, do not watch this video from today's Senate Judiciary Committee gun control hearing, because Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) completely demolishes him, along with his argument against gun background checks.
Another striking moment comes at the eight-minute mark of the video when Denver University Law School Adjunct Professor David Kopel responds to a question from Durbin about magazine capacity by saying "thank goodness" the Aurora, Colorado, shooter had a 100-round magazine because it turned out to be a "piece of junk" that jammed. That has to be the strangest argument in favor of high-capacity magazines that I've ever heard. I wonder if he'd change the argument if he felt that magazine quality had improved?
Gabby Giffords' husband Mark Kelly ended Durbin's question time with a powerful case for limiting magazine capacity to 10 rounds, saying that if the Tucson, Arizona, shooter hadn't had 33 round magazines, life would have been spared. Kelly, who supports gun control but also believes in gun ownership, noted that the person who tackled the shooter was almost killed when an armed civilian almost fired his gun, thinking that the tackler was in fact the shooter.