I’m not too crazy about the confusion of the terms, but when it comes to laws, confusing the terms is downright shameful.
I think the origin of the confusion comes from World War II when the soldiers were issued a number of different firearms with the designation of “M1”. The M1 Garand was loaded with 8-round En-Bloc clips. Meanwhile the M1 Carbine and the M1 Thompson both were loaded with detachable magazines.
Since soldiers were issued ammo in different containers, I can see how the terms could be easily confused. But its 2013 now, people! The only time clips are used is in shooting military surplus guns like the Garand, or the SKS, or when soldiers are given clips of ammo to faster reload their magazines.
A simple rule of thumb, if it has a spring in it, and it actually feeds rounds into the chamber of a gun, its a MAGAZINE, if it is just a piece of metal or other material (like those cardboard and metal chargers for the Swiss K31) that holds the rounds together for easier feeding into the magazine, then its a CLIP.
Even simpler!
Clips feed the magazine.
Magazine feeds the gun.
Its a little circular with that definition, if the person is misunderstanding the definition of “clips”.
The Garand does make things a bit confusing, I can definitely see where it would be the source of the confusion.
Someone I work with who is ex-Army insists that magazines are supposed to be called clips. But he also insists that an M60 is 7.62×54 and that he should get armor piercing .45acp for home defense because that way his wife can shoot through the door easier.
Well as a service man I’ll give him a little latitude on the clips vs. magazines, and he’s only off my 3mm on the 7.62 NATO. (At least he didn’t say it was rimmed!), and what kind of doors does he have at home, and what surveillance systems are BEHIND that door that make that NOT a rule 4 violation.
I tried to give him a pass, but it also came out that 7.62×51 is the AK-47 round, 7.62×39 is what AK-74s use, and he says he has 4 50 caliber machine guns in a bunker in South Carolina protected by land mines.
That’s a little fruity!
The state of New York put the confusion to bed and just banned them all.