Recently the new public safety minister announced that he would be banning any magazine with its capacity blocked by a rivet. This method has been used since the mid 1990s to comply with Canada's stupid magazine restrictions. There are 10s of thousands of these magazines in Canada.
I have deliberately avoided commenting on this news while I thought it over. I left the obvious commentary to others.
What isn't being asked is what this ban will actually look like. I think I have it figured out and it does not look pretty.
Long before I started my business back in 2008, I was forced to shop at places like P&D and Milarm. I was trying to help my friend get magazines for his brand new AR-15 (one that I actually traded to him in exchange for a car). We stopped by P&D and bought some metal AR-15 mags. After opening what I can only describe as a "homemade" package, we discovered that the side of the magazine had been cut out. When you inserted round #6, it spit it out the side.
In addition to compromising the structural integrity of the magazine, it made it collect dirt, snag on everything and come to think of it, those magazines were more expensive to buy in pre-2008 then they are today with rivets. $40 of 2007 money versus $25 of 2023 money.
Real inflation (not government bullshit numbers) suggests that real inflation is 11% per year. But let's pretend they are what the government says they are (I don't want to give anyone a heart attack). If we make the premise that $40 was the cost to buy and cut the side out of the magazine in 2007, then adjusting for inflation that same magazine will cost $54.91 in 2024.
But that is not all...
Any magazine going through this alteration will require a fixture to mount the magazine while it is milled open. Each type will require its own fixture. Magazines that are less common will simply disappear. As an example, I will certainly not make a fixture for modifying P320 magazines; they are too uncommon to be economical.
Plastic magazines modified in this manner will eventually shatter unless babied. Metal ones will bend. Both will have their springs exposed to the elements. Spring steel rusts very quickly. If you can find magazines, they will need to be replaced often at the painful inflated price.
