New Jersey Sues Over Sale of ‘Deadly’ 100-Round Ammunition Magazine
N.J. Sues Over Sale of 100-Round Ammunition Magazine
(Bloomberg) -- New Jersey sued a Nevada company for selling large-capacity ammunition magazines online to an undercover agent in violation of a cease-and-desist letter sent under the East Coast state’s strict gun-control laws.
New Jersey claims in the lawsuit that New Frontier Armory LLC violated its consumer-protection laws by failing to warn buyers that magazines holding more than 10 rounds are illegal in the state. New Frontier Armory sold the agent magazines holding as many as 100 rounds, according to the lawsuit.
The case is part of a crackdown by New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir Grewal, a Democrat who has argued that gun-control measures can help reign in America’s epidemic of mass shootings. There were two deadly mass shootings a month in the U.S. so far in 2019, according to a tally compiled by ABC News earlier this month. Ten people were injured in a shooting outside an Allentown, Pennsylvania, nightclub on Thursday.
In March, Grewal sued a California “ghost gun” company that ships partly assembled firearms kits to buyers who can avoid background checks simply by building the weapons at home.
Large-capacity magazines, or LCMs, were used in the massacres at the Pulse nightclub and Sandy Hook Elementary School, as well as the 2011 shooting in an Arizona parking lot where Representative Gabby Giffords was wounded.
Such magazines “allow the owner to fire an unusually high number of bullets at a time, without ever even pausing to reload,” Grewal said in the complaint. “So violence that involves LCMs can result in more shots fired, persons wounded, and wounds per victim than other gun attacks.”
The complaint includes a screenshot from the company’s website showing a cylindrical drum magazine, selling for $129.99, that holds 100 rounds for AR-15 semiautomatic rifles. The website doesn’t alert New Jersey shoppers that it’s against the law to own such items, according to the lawsuit.
A person who answered the phone at New Frontier Armory in Las Vegas declined to comment on the lawsuit or give their name. The company’s lawyers haven’t yet been listed on the court docket.
The case is Grewal v. New Frontier Armory LLC, C-000133-19, Superior Court of New Jersey, Chancery Division Civil (Essex County).
To contact the reporter on this story: Erik Larson in New York at elarson4@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: David Glovin at dglovin@bloomberg.net, Joe Schneider, Steve Stroth
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