Moments after Luigi Mangione was handcuffed at a Pennsylvania McDonald’s, a police officer searching his backpack found a loaded gun magazine wrapped in a pair of underwear.
The discovery, recounted in court Monday as Mangione fights to keep evidence out of his New York murder case, convinced police in Altoona, Pennsylvania, that he was the man wanted in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in Manhattan five days earlier.
“A loaded gun magazine” aka just a magazine, you don’t describe a magazine as loaded. They just wanted to use the word loaded to make it seem more dangerous so the jury sees him as violent
Gun magazines can be empty.
Yeah sure, lemme just carry around an empty magazine and a box of ammo, then load the magazine. I’m sure whatever i have the gun for will patiently wait for me to load one bullet at a time, then load the gun.
I’m not saying whether you should or shouldn’t, I’m merely acknowledging that unloaded magazines exist.
“Loaded” seems perfectly fine to describe a full magazine.
Its natural to say “reload my magazine”
Magazines are actually empty by default
A box is empty by default. A magazine being filled with ammo is not any way a danger. If I put a filled magazine in the same room as my puppy, nothing is going to happen minus a potential choking hazard if they manage to remove a bullet.
A filled magazine is not a danger and should not be described as “loaded” the same way a “loaded” firearm is an actual present danger.
What are you talking about, that’s absolutely how you describe a magazine. You load rounds into a magazine, ergo a magazine with rounds in it has been loaded. I suppose the more common thing to say is “pass me a fresh mag” but something like, for example: “woah hey that’s loaded” when referring to a magazine someone is carelessly handling would be completely normal thing to say.
Also, filled magazines absolutely are hazardous, and in the same exact ways as a loaded firearm - mishandling could lead to premature detonation of a round. Neither a gun nor a magazine is going to cause harm just by sitting undisturbed, but the part of the gun that’s filled with explosives is absolutely the most dangerous individual component of a firearm and should be treated with the same degree of respect as a loaded weapon.
Mine are not.
Yours are plastic