Salon: “The high-capacity magazine of the semiautomatic pistol used in the shooting of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and more than a dozen other people on Saturday would have been illegal to manufacture and difficult to purchase under the Clinton-era assault weapons ban, which expired in 2004. According to police and media reports, the alleged shooter, Jared Lee Loughner, legally purchased a semiautomatic Glock 19 with a high-capacity magazine in November at a gun store in Tucson. Under the assault weapons ban, it was illegal to manufacture or sell new high-capacity magazines, defined as those that hold more than 10 rounds. The magazines used by Loughner had 31 rounds each, according to police. If Loughner had been using a traditional magazine, “it would have drastically reduced the number of shots he got off before he had to pause, unload and reload — and he could have been stopped,” Daniel Vice, senior attorney at the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence, tells Salon.”

• Via Politico: Federal charges could carry death penalty and Young intern saved Gabrielle Giffords’s life. Also – “The U.S. government charged Jared Lee Loughner with five counts on Sunday, including murder and attempted assassination. The complaint is here. An accompanying release is up here.”
• WaPo: Gun used in Tucson was purchased legally; Arizona laws among most lax in nation