NINE months since NJ magazine ban; ZERO magazines surrendered

NJ.com reported recently that a New Jersey law banning "large-capacity" magazines, which went into effect nearly nine months ago, has resulted in exactly ZERO magazines surrendered to New Jersey State Police.

From the article:

When New Jersey’s ban on large-capacity gun magazines went into effect last December, it forced gun owners to make a decision.

Should they turn the magazines over to law enforcement? Should they modify them into compliance? Should they sell them to authorized owners or store them in another state?

Or simply ignore the law which banned magazines that have more than 10 rounds?

There are about one million gun owners in the state, which translates into a huge number of magazines.

The fact is, the state government has absolutely NO idea how many magazines there are in the state. And judging by the response of the citizenry, they're not going to find out any time soon. Again from the article:

As the state’s largest gun group challenges the constitutionality of the law, gun owners have had to get creative with how they abide by the law.

Some gun owners have buried their large-capacity magazines in their backyard or behind sheetrock in their garage, said Eric Rebels, a local gun rights activist and owner of GunSitters, a secure firearms storage system company.

Others are opting to store them away from their homes.

...

Gun stores are legally allowed to store the banned magazines, but they cannot sell them.

The one thing Rebels said gun owners are not doing is handing their large-capacity magazines over to law enforcement, one of the choices state officials encouraged when the law went into effect.

A New Jersey State Police spokesman said not a single large-capacity magazine has been turned in since the law went into effect nearly nine months ago.

A spokesperson from the NJ Attorney General's office is quoted as saying they don't know if a single person has been charged with using or possessing a large-capacity magazine in the nine months since the ban went into effect.

Scott Bach, the executive director of the Association of New Jersey Rifle and Pistol Clubs, the organization who is challenging the constitutionality of the law, is quoted as saying “the law is mistargeted. It is not at all surprising to me (that no one has turned them over to State Police). Why would you turn in property you paid money for when a government has banned it when there is a lawsuit challenging it that could take a few years?”

Bach said his organization plans to appeal their case up to the U.S. Supreme Court, if necessary.

Chad D. Baus served as Buckeye Firearms Association Secretary from 2013-2019. He is co-founder of BFA-PAC, and served as its Vice Chairman for 15 years. He is the editor of BuckeyeFirearms.org, which received the Outdoor Writers of Ohio 2013 Supporting Member Award for Best Website, and is also an NRA-certified firearms instructor.