The gun-control reform process can be cumbersome and lengthy.

In light of the Arizona shootings, Rep. Carolyn McCarthy, D-New York, introduced legislation Tuesday banning the sale of high-capacity gun magazines, similar to the one used in the Jan. 8 Tucson massacre. McCarthy’s husband died and her son was injured in a 1993 Long Island train massacre.

Arizona shooter Jared Laughner’s high-capacity magazine would have been illegal to manufacture and difficult to purchase under the Brady Handgun Prevention Act, which expired in 2004, according to the Brady Campaign for Gun Prevention.

“The restriction on ammunition clips was a part of the expired assault weapons ban,” said Paul Helmke, president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence. “Reinstating the restrictions on high-capacity clips is simply common sense.”

Rep. Peter King, R-New York, chairman of the Homeland Security Committee, said last week he plans to introduce a new bill prohibiting the possession of a gun within 1,000 feet of a federal official.

But if history has showed anything, gun-control reform is not for the impatient.

After the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in 1963, it took five years for the Gun Control Act of 1968 to be enacted.

Following the failed assassination attempt on President Ronald Reagan, it took 13 years for President Clinton to sign the Brady Handgun Prevention Act.

The only recent case of swift gun-control reform was in 2007, after the shootings at Virginia Tech University. The National Instant Criminal Background Check Improvement Act was passed by that year’s end.

The Arizona tragedy is another wake-up call that will likely result in reform, said Toby Hoover, executive director of the Ohio Coalition Against Gun Violence.

“This time is different because of the congresswoman and because a 9-year-old girl was killed. That’s unacceptable in this country,” Hoover said.

Hoover said her Toledo-based organization supports a ban on high-powered magazines like those purchased by Laughner and a system that would prevent people who are a danger to themselves and others from purchasing weapons.

“If that means someone has a more difficult time getting a (high-powered) weapon or is kept from purchasing one at all, so be it. They don’t need it,” Hoover said.

The federal bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms continues to track the number of unlawful firearms circulated around the country and releases a report each year with its findings.

In Ohio, more than 10,000 unlawful firearms were recovered in 2009, according to the report, which helps local law enforcement authorities conducting investigations by tracking the sale and possession of firearms.

The 2010 edition of the report is scheduled for release soon, a spokesman for the bureau said.

Of those weapons recovered, more than three-quarters were pistols or revolvers. A vast majority of incidents in which a weapon was found involved drug-related offenses. More than 600 weapons were confiscated as a result of robbery or simple assault.

Butler County Sheriff’s Detective Hung Tri-Rudolf suggested deaths might have been prevented in Arizona if a trained person had a firearm with them.

“That could have prevented some casualties,” Tri-Rudolf said. “All the bad guys around this world can get guns whenever they want. It’s just the good citizens have to go through all the background checks and everything.”

Staff Writer Tiffany Y. Latta contributed to this story.