Gun Lobby Crushes Limits on Armor-Piercing Ammo That It Helped Create

Gawker reports…

As the director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) prepares to defend his budget before pro-gun senators on Thursday, the agency has decided to halt a plan to ban a type of armor-piercing ammunition following pushback from gun activists. An official with knowledge of the deliberations told Gawker that “ATF is basically being bullied and strong-armed into not enforcing the law.” 

The plan, part of a larger framework developed with industry leaders and law enforcement, would have removed a “sporting purposes” exemption from two types of “green-tip” armor-piercing .223-caliber ammo rounds, developed for military use and popular in assault-style weapons like the AR-15 rifle. Last month, ATF released the proposal for public comment and it was met with a barrage of criticism from pro-gun activists, led by lobby groups and politicians. 

In a letter to ATF Director Todd Jones on Monday, 52 Republican senators expressed their concern that the proposal would have a detrimental effect on Second Amendment rights. They wrote that “law-abiding gun owners [should not] face substantial difficulty in finding ammunition available and at reasonable prices because government entities are banning such ammunition.” The House Judiciary Committee’s chairman has since rallied conservative colleagues against the plan, accusing the Obama administration of attempting to “chip away at Second Amendment rights.”

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) has announced that it will not be seeking to implement a proposed framework to ban certain types of ammunition. This follows reports of responses and threats from members of Congress to obstruct the ATF’s 2016 budget. The agency has stated that it will be gathering public comment on the proposal until next Monday, but has since changed course. In a release published Tuesday, the ATF stated that the “vast majority of the comments received to date are critical of the framework, and include issues that deserve further study”, and that they will not pursue a final framework at this time. 

This Thursday, the ATF’s director, B. Todd Jones, is set to face a Senate appropriations subcommittee led by Senator Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) to review the agency’s budget requests and justifications. The framework itself has been the subject of debate and criticism by gun lobbyists, some of whom were involved in its development. 

The M855 and SS109 steel-core rounds, which the framework is intended to ban, are capable of piercing body armor used by police officers, as are many high-powered rifle rounds. However, since the passage of the Law Enforcement Officers Protection Act of 1986, ammunition manufacturers have been able to seek exemptions for certain types of rounds “primarily intended to be used for sporting purposes”. Congress sought to protect law enforcement officers from the effects of a projectile that, although originally intended for a rifle, could be fired from a handgun. 

The ATF has announced that it will not be pursuing a framework to ban certain types of ammunition, following reports of responses and threats from members of Congress. The agency has stated that the “vast majority of the comments received to date are critical of the framework”, and that they will not be seeking to issue a final framework at this time. On Thursday, ATF director B. Todd Jones is set to face a Senate appropriations subcommittee to review the agency’s budget requests and justifications. The framework has been the subject of debate and criticism by gun lobbyists, some of whom were involved in its development. Congress sought to protect law enforcement officers from the effects of a projectile that could be fired from a handgun, and ammunition manufacturers have been able to seek exemptions for certain types of rounds “primarily intended to be used for sporting purposes” since the passage of the Law Enforcement Officers Protection Act of 1986.

The gun industry has been granted a sporting exemption for M855 ammunition, but now manufactures handguns to chamber the armor-piercing rounds. This has been described by one manufacturer as creating an “extremely versatile weapon platform”. The implications of this are concerning, and have been met with criticism by many.

In 1986, an exemption was granted for armor piercing ammunition, however, this exemption did not consider the AR-type handguns that are now commercially available. To ensure consistency, the ATF developed a framework in 2012 with input from gun industry leaders, lobbyists, and law enforcement, that would require the removal of the “sporting” exemptions for “both the SS109 and M855 cartridges.” 

Since 2011, the ATF has been flooded with at least 30 exemption requests, forcing the agency to develop an objective standard to judge whether some armor-piercing rounds were worth keeping in circulation. Heather Colbrun, an ATF spokeswoman, told Gawker that the proposed framework would have minimal impact on sportsmen, as owners could keep the rounds they already have and 168 types of .223 ammunition would still be legal for sale. 

Interestingly, many of the groups and corporations that criticized the ATF framework as anti-gun socialism were actually involved in its development. In November 2012, the ATF held four meetings with interested parties to get their input on the framework. Colbrun commented that the agency was “committed to a transparent process.”

Gawker got a list of the attendees, who included:

  • The NRA
  • The National Sport Shooting Foundation
  • Cutting Edge Bullets
  • Remington Arms
  • FGI Ammunition
  • Hornady Manufacturing
  • Winchester Ammunition
  • The Sporting Arms and Ammunition Manufacturers Institute
  • Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms

The National Sports Shooting Foundation, based in close proximity to the site of the 2012 Sandy Hook massacre, failed to allude to their involvement in the ATF deliberations in a post on their website last month, titled ‘Oppose ATF’s 5.56 M855 Ball Ammunition Ban‘. Similarly, the National Rifle Association neglected to mention their role in the conversations when they sent out alerts to their members, urging them to demonstrate against the proposal.

 

 

Rumors of a potential ban on firearms have caused a surge in ammunition purchases, with one Virginia gun-shop owner reporting that they have sold more ammunition in the last three weeks than in the previous six months. This has been driven by lobbyists, leading gun-lovers to stock up on ammunition, providing manufacturers with a financial windfall.

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