The Ruger Letter..............

 Here is an interesting tid bit of news its, ancient history by now. None the less its an odd position for a gun maker to take.Ruger, was advocating for a high capacity magazine ban. Be sure to read the whole thing. They have changed there position, on high capacity magazines, since the letter, so I guess that counts for something.

Her is a link to the article.   

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruger#Pistols


reprinted by permission see lic. below.






After a spate of high profile shootings and incidents with the Ruger Mini-14 rifle, along with the popularity the Mini 14 had gained with militias and extremist movements during the late 1970s and 1980s, William B. Ruger expressed a highly unpopular position (amongst firearms owners, users and enthusiasts) by stating his personal views on the "sporting" nature of certain firearms. In his letter to members of the House and Senate on 30 March 1989, Mr. Ruger stated (in what has come to be known as "The Ruger Letter"):

"The best way to address the firepower concern is therefore not to try to outlaw or license many millions of older and perfectly legitimate firearms (which would be a licensing effort of staggering proportions) but to prohibit the possession of high capacity magazines. By a simple, complete, and unequivocal ban on large capacity magazines, all the difficulty of defining "assault rifles" and "semi-automatic rifles" is eliminated. The large capacity magazine itself, separate or attached to the firearm, becomes the prohibited item. A single amendment to Federal firearms laws could prohibit their possession or sale and would effectively implement these objectives."^{[citation needed]}

In addition to the furor amongst hunters, sportsmen and shooters caused by "The Ruger Letter", Mr. Ruger made additional comments during an interview with NBC network's Tom Brokaw that angered 2nd Amendment supporters further, saying: "no honest man needs more than 10 rounds in any gun…" and "I never meant for simple civilians to have my 20 and 30 round magazines…". It has long been Ruger's policy to limit sales of those items to Law Enforcement or Military purchasers.^{[citation needed]}
This position, coming from an important firearms manufacturer such as Mr. Ruger, caused outrage in the shooting sports community and led some to boycott Ruger's products.
"The Ruger Letter" is widely believed to be the genesis for those parts of legislation that were drafted 5 years later in the now defunct Assault Weapons Ban which prohibited the manufacture of any magazines holding over 10 rounds of ammunition for civilian sale, except to the motion-picture industry, which Ruger continued to pursue. It should be noted, however, that Mr. Ruger actually had advocated a 15 round limit.
Recently Ruger has retreated from its historical position of limiting sales of these magazines to the average citizen. Ruger is now actively selling twenty and thirty round magazines to the general public.


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