I agree completely that smaller magazines and restrictions on the types of rifles and other weapons available to most people would be a good step to preventing massacres like Newtown.

But I’ve also seen a lot of myths out there, mostly among people who’ve never handled guns.

The most noticeable one lately is how long it takes to reload.

I’ve handled guns all my life, but I’m by no means the fastest I’ve seen even in person.

That said, I can drop the magazine on a pistol and have a new one locked and ready to fire in about half a second. (And by dropping the magazine, I mean literally dropping it and letting it fall on the floor; this saves time. If you’re right-handed, have the fresh one in your left hand and as the spent one falls clear, slap in the new one. Done.)

Nope, not exaggerating. I just did it, and I was that quick even after years of not practicing. With practice I could do it much, much faster, so fast you could barely see my hands move.

In the army, I could reload my M4 just as fast (similar to the rifle that Adam Lanza used).

Smaller capacity magazines would help, but they aren’t the panacea they are made out to be. I’m just saying that anyone skilled with guns can reload way, way faster than a liberal who has only ever seen a gun on TV can imagine.