Whippany company stores 15-round magazines for NJ gun owners

A Morris County company will store 15-round magazines for New Jersey gun owners due to the current ban on magazines holding more than 10 rounds of ammunition.

News 12 Staff

Sep 5, 2019, 2:01 AM

Updated 1,939 days ago

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A Morris County company will store 15-round magazines for New Jersey gun owners due to the current ban on magazines holding more than 10 rounds of ammunition.
The law banning large-capacity gun magazines went into effect this past December. Gov. Phil Murphy signed the law as part of a package of bills on gun reform.
"Smart, comprehensive and common-sense gun safety laws will do much more to keep our communities safe than the ‘guns on every street corner and guns in every classroom’ thinking of the gun lobby,” Murphy said when signing the bills.
New Jersey gun owners who owned those magazines had several options – destroy them, sell them out of state or store them inside a safety deposit box at Whippany-based Gunsitters.
"The mere possession or transportation of those magazines is a penalty, a $10,000 fine and 18 months in jail for a magazine,” says Gunsitters owner Eric Rebels.
But storing the magazines at Gunsitters is perfectly legal.
"What we're doing is storing magazines in our vault through County Line Firearms,” Rebel says. “So, County Line leases this whole [safety deposit box] and from us and they store the magazines in there."
County Line Firearms is a federally-licensed gun dealer, so the company can store the magazines for gun owners. It costs $1.25 per magazine, per month.
Meanwhile, the Association of New Jersey Rifle and Pistol Clubs is fighting the magazine ban in federal court. The organization is hoping to take the issue to the Supreme Court.
"The people who are storing their magazines are hoping that it goes back to at least the 15 rounds,” says Rebel.
Gunowners who still have possession of magazines that can contain more than 10 rounds can still arrange for a local police department to get rid of them. Or they can contact County Lines Firearms who can get the magazines into Gunsitters’ vault.