BATON ROUGE, La (NBC33) -- Congresswoman Carolyn McCarthy proposed legislation Tuesday that would ban the kind of ammunition magazines used during the mass shooting in Arizona.
The bill targets high-capacity ammunition magazines. Those hold more than ten rounds. The high-capacity clips were actually outlawed until 2004 when the Federal Assault Weapons ban expired. Now, McCarthy wants to reinstate that bill, which is already in place in six states around the country.
James Higgins appreciates his freedom to buy the kind of gun he wants. "Under the Constitution, we have the right to bear arms," he says.
But in the wake of Arizona shooting, some of the lawmakers want to take away a small portion of that choice. "I don't believe they should mess with our rights," says Higgins. "That's something that was given to us from our forefathers when the country was built."
Higgins says guns aren't the problem. "It would have happened whether it was a gun or a baseball bat. He wanted to get his anger out somehow."
Not everyone agrees. Cindy Buck thinks Congress needs to take action now, before someone else gets hurt. "I don't want to see what happened in Tucson to happen again. I hate to see people suffering, losing their loved ones," she says.
Buck says she's not sure that the proposed ban will actually help, however. "One round can kill somebody just like ten."
Instead, she wants laws that focus on keeping weapons away from people who are mentally unstable, a suggestion that others, like Higgins, can get behind.
"You don't have to make a new law just because a tragedy happens," he says. "You find the basis behind it."
The bill would still let gun owners who already have high-capacity magazines to keep them, but would ban all future sales and transfers.