ATF Holds M855 Green Tip Ban In Abatement
BY Herschel Smith
9 years, 9 months ago
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives announced Tuesday it “will not at this time seek to issue a final framework” implementing a proposed ban on what it’s still insisting is “armor piercing ammunition.” The special advisory issued by the Public Affairs Division noted that with the comment period scheduled to close by next Monday, “ATF has already received more than 80,000 comments, which will be made publicly available as soon as practicable.”
‘Although ATF endeavored to create a proposal that reflected a good faith interpretation of the law and balanced the interests of law enforcement, industry, and sportsmen, the vast majority of the comments received to date are critical of the framework, and include issues that deserve further study,” the advisory explained. “ATF will process the comments received, further evaluate the issues raised therein, and provide additional open and transparent process (for example, through additional proposals and opportunities for comment) before proceeding with any framework.”
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While arguments are correct that M855 ball ammo does not meet ATF’s own definition of “armor piercing,” the larger point, that there is no legitimate authority to impose such criteria in the first place, is being missed. So when ATF declares they’ll be back, until such time as that usurpation is addressed and resolved, it’s prudent to believe they will be, at the first political opportunity.
We could posit three theories behind what the ATF did today. First, not even the federal regulators like to be called names such as traitors, douche, incompetent and bloated. But that’s assuming they care about the American people, and the evidence for such an assertion is lamentable nonexistent. So that theory suffers from being wishful thinking.
Second, the ATF understands that M855 green tip ammunition doesn’t meet the statutory definition of AP, or its corollary, that 5.56 mm lead ball ammunition can also penetrate soft body armor and is far more lethal in most circumstances. Therefore, there will be a protracted legal battle waged against this regulation.
Third, the ATF realizes that a ban on M855 ammunition is meaningless without a ban on 5.56 mm ammunition, and that would have no more basis in law than a ban on any other type of ammunition. Additionally, the ATF realizes they may be firing the first shot of a civil war were they to take an action like that.
Between theories 2 and 3, I don’t know which is more likely. I dismiss out of hand the notion that the ATF feared action taken by the anemic, pathetic, pitiful Senate and House. Readers may also have other theories (or combinations of the three proffered here). But David is likely right on one thing. The ATF will be back.
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On March 11, 2015 at 1:38 am, J said:
A fourth possible reason: Other Gov’t elements, the Military and other LEO’s, don’t want to pay more for ammo and told the F troop to back off behind closed doors.
A lot of the LC M855 out there is seconds, contract overruns and rejected lots, did they really think ATK was just gonna eat the cost of destroying or otherwise disposing of all the ammo they normally would have sold on the open market?
Banning it for us would have raised costs for them.
On March 11, 2015 at 11:25 am, Harold Ancell said:
And the government’s contract with ATK also allows them to outright cancel orders, and ATK then runs the brass, powder, etc. already ordered through the government’s machinery and sells it to us. The government very conveniently did that with an order for 120 million rounds of 55 grain M193 in the summer of 2008; imagine how bad the post-first election of Obama ammo shortage would have been without that….
So it’s a government, ATK, and consumers win-win-win arrangement that this action would have seriously messed up.
On March 11, 2015 at 11:30 am, Harold Ancell said:
I wouldn’t completely rule out Congressional action, or at least I don’t think the ATF could have.
Sure, the establishment GOP was delighted to fumble their attempt to hinder Obama’s amnesty, because Obama is just doing work Congressional Republicans are afraid to do. But action against the unpopular ATF, who’d accidentally signaled this was a done deal before the end of the comment period, further angering us, would have helped them recover some of their reputation, and if not this year, maybe in 2016 or later. Even if the probability is low, an organization needs to beware of existential threats.