Obama Administration Abandons Plan To Ban Armor-Piercing Ammunition

[Capt. Obvious]

This discussion thread was locked as off-topic by DonViejo (a host of the Latest Breaking News forum).

Source: Associated Press

Amid an onslaught of criticism, the Obama administration has dropped plans to ban a popular type of rifle ammunition that can pierce a police officer's protective vest if fired from a handgun, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives said Tuesday.

More than 80,000 people have commented on the proposal to ban certain types of 5.56 mm, or .223 caliber, ammunition since the agency announced its proposal last month. An ATF spokeswoman, Ginger Colbrun, said the vast majority of comments were critical of the proposal.

Objections also came from 291 members of Congress — majorities of both the House and Senate.

....

Armor-piercing handgun ammunition has been banned since 1986 as a way to protect police officers under the federal Law Enforcement Officers Protection Act. The rifle bullets considered under the ban were long thought to be considered exempt because they were used for "sporting purposes," such as target shooting.

Read more: http://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/obama-ban-armor-piercing-ammunition

[heaven05]

1. fight what you can win

[Paladin]

2. Keep hope alive, pro-gun militants.

Maybe one of these days, the Evil Black Democratic President will come to get your guns and ammo.





(Sarcasm tag, for those who always seem to need one.)

[hack89]

9. You are right - I have never understood the "they are coming to take away your guns" meme

The president and congressional Dems have been good to gun owners.

[groundloop]

11. I fully understand - it's intended to sell guns/ammo and to keep NRA dues coming in

Every so often the NRA comes out with some bullshit about the horrible nasty liberals taking this or that toy away and instantly there's a spike in sales so their gullible members can get their hands on that particular toy before the horrible nasty feds can outlaw it (which of course rarely happens). And of course the NRA then gets to say "look what we did, we protected your toys - and don't forget to send in your dues".

[AtheistCrusader]

13. It's an ammo type used for legitimate purposes.

Not a single police officer has ever been killed with it. Not one.

So attempting to ban it has three obvious and detrimental effects:

1. Instantly drives sales of the proposed banned item.
2. Gives people 'ideas'.
3. Sets us up for another embarrassing political defeat on the overall issue of guns, and reminds everyone that as a political entity, we don't know what the fuck guns are, how they work, etc.

The problem with this ammo is not that it is 'armor piercing' in the context of a IIa or III police officer vest. The problem with this ammo is that it (and others that are armor piercing) can now be fired from a 'pistol' platform. Such things have been around for a while, but only recently have they gone into mass production outside many-thousands-of-dollars precision firearms from Thompson, who make things like Olympic Target Rifles.

Now we've got Oly arms, and a couple other manufacturers mass producing AR and other rifle-caliber 'pistols'. So, if you want to fix this problem; ban that. It's a classification problem. Like, truck manufacturers get around fuel economy and safety regs, by classifying large truck-based SUV's as 'farm equipment'. Just fix that bullshit. That's all you have to do. Simple tweak to the law, 'sorry, this is not a pistol, this is a short-barreled-rifle. Please register it as such if you can, have fun with your AOW fees, etc'.

It is not hard to fix this potential problem.

[Gman]

12. Think sell more guns and get out the vote

It works well.

[AtheistCrusader]

3. A better solution would be to ban

SBR's, or AR 'pistols'. M855 isn't the only 5.56 NATO that will go through a vest, it's just the one that qualified under the 1994 law (being specifically designed to penetrate) and also, 'fireable' from a 'pistol'.

(From a rifle, all these rifle rounds will go through a IIa or III vest, armor piercing or not.)



Plenty of individual weapons or weapon configurations have been banned over the years and those bans have passed constitutional muster. This is not a 'common' firearm at all, especially compared to the AR-15 itself.

[kacekwl]

4. You would think

police departments would support this but you know Obama's war on cops and all.

[hack89]

8. Police officers understand the issue better than most

since most of them wear, by choice, protective vests that are not designed to stop any type of rifle bullet they know that this ban would not make them safer.

[stone space]

5. This should make the DU gun nuts happy.

http://www.a-human-right.com/effective.html

[Dont call me Shirley]

6. That's it, just make cops even more afraid so they shoot more people. Good idea...

[PoliticAverse]

7. What a misleading headline. n/t

[Capt. Obvious]

10. What a misleading post. n/t

[DonViejo]

14. Locking...

This is a duplicate of an OP entered earlier. Please continue the conversation in that thread:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10141035781