Should magazines remain loaded when not in use?

[HOOKED ON HISTORY]

I kind of split the difference on home defense mags. Twenty in a thirty rounder. Perhaps it helps. Perhaps not.

[Sunray]

"...13 out of 15 in the mag did not fire..." That's not caused by the mag. Cartridges that don't go bang have most likely been stored where extremes of temperatures and/or humidity cause the powder to deteriorate.
Mag springs (nor any other spring) do not lose temper from being compressed. Nor does repeated use of a mag cause the spring to wear out. Flat springs can get work hardened at the bends that way, but the spring doesn't lose temper.
There's no law about storing mags loaded either. You cannot store or transport a loaded mag in its firearm though.

[browningautorifle]

There's no law about storing mags loaded either.

OK then...it's just the way it reads, I wouldn't trust a donkey walloper not to seize them and not charge me...

[CINDERS]

On a drift but here's a story that made the rounds years ago about a person being charged with unlawful wounding,
Story has it a perp broke into a house armed with a baseball bat the owner armed himself with a knife and duly stabbed the intruder only to be charged in the courts.
The premise for the charge (Hold onto your seat) that the knife was a more advanced weapon than the baseball bat well I know which one had the greatest reach, having a knife means you have to get up close and personal.

I for the same reason as Jim have no loaded mags, for that matter our laws on home defense are weak and not in the home owners favour, I have a motto that anyone breaking into your house uninvited has forfeited all rites whatsoever and gets their just deserts with whatever I can reach first of stashed implements around the house they have ill intent and I have to protect my wife & son.

When my WWII armourer friend was alive we often spoke about the spate of home invasions occurring he said to me 'If you have a gun in your hands you shoot them first and straight afterwards the second shot you put through the roof. When your questioned by the powers that be you say that you had fired a warning shot." "What you do not say is which one went first".......