SENATOR'S GUN RUN!

Gun magazines packing the massive firepower of up to 30 bullets should be long gone from New York since state lawmakers banned them in 1994.
They're not.

The Daily News this week accompanied State Sen. Eric Adams (D-Brooklyn) to two gun stores near Albany that routinely sell the high-capacity clips.

The large magazines - used by the likes of Jared Loughner, who shot Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and killed six in January - are still allowed in New York if they were manufactured before the 1994 law.

Both stores Adams visited claim they sell the old, legal models.

At Guns Inc. in Rensselaer, a Daily News hidden camera looked on as Adams bought two 30-round magazines for an AK-47 assault rifle.

The senator used his credit card to buy the clips - at $42.19 each - and walked out less than five minutes later without even having to show identification.

At B&J Shooting Supply in nearby Colonie, Adams arrived to find the shelves cleared out of large volume magazines.

"We expect them any time now," a store worker told Adams. "We have a bunch ordered.

Legal experts say there is a glaring loophole: There's often no way to tell when a magazine was made.

No law requires gunmakers to put a serial number or any kind of identifying mark on a clip unless it was made during the now-expired federal assault weapons ban, which ran from 1994 to 2004.

The New York ban did not expire, and gun control advocates warn gun owners and stores could potentially buy new magazines in another state and pass them off here as a pre-1994 version.

"All somebody would have to do is show an old receipt. You couldn't know for sure," said Paul Helmke of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence.

"This is why we need stronger federal laws because even when states do the right thing, it's hard for them to do so effectively when you can just go to the next state."

Rep. Carolyn McCarthy (D-L.I.) has a bill in Congress that would ban the sale of all extended magazines across the country, though it's unlikely to gain much Republican support.

Adams is proposing similar legislation for New York.

"This bill is going to close the loophole so the clips are banned, period," Adams said. "The more rounds you're able to discharge prior to having to reload, the more dangerous you are."

Mayor Bloomberg recently spent $130,000 of city money to hire detectives with hidden cameras to show how it easy it is to pick up high-powered weapons - including extended magazines - at an Arizona gun show in the wake of the Tucson massacre.

"Before we can deal with Arizona," Adams said, "we need clean up our own state."

Jackie Hilly of New Yorkers Against Gun Violence said extended magazines have been used "in every mass shooting in the last five years. ... People who use them know they are able to increase the lethality of what they're doing dramatically."

Sellers insist they follow the law.

"What are they going to ban next?" asked a manager of Guns Inc., who refused to give his name. "I think a state senator has more to do and worry about in this environment than how many bullets a guy can put into a gun."

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