Where are They Getting These BS Talking Points on M855 Ammo?

In have two articles here by different authors, let’s have a look at them. First from the Huffington Post

You know that something’s up in the gun business when Rush Limbaugh starts talking about gun control. And what he was talking about this past week was the decision by the ATF to create a new standard for exempting certain kinds of so-called ‘armor-piercing’ bullets from the ban that Congress placed on such ammo in 1986. The law was designed to prevent civilians from buying or carrying ammo whose bullets could penetrate body armor worn by police, but manufacturing exemptions were routinely granted if the ATF determined that the ammo was going to be used for ‘sporting purposes,’ which usually meant that it would be used in rifles, as opposed to handguns whose use usually served no hunting or sporting purposes at all.

I do enjoy the jabs at Rush Limbaugh, he’s a great example of why I’m NOT a Republican anymore, he’s also a colossal blow-hard who talks a LOT about religious faith, when from all observations he has none, Conservative politics, while supporting RINOs like John McCain and Mitt Romney, and when he thinks he can get some attention THEN he talks about the 2nd Amendment.

So now onto the fisking. I love how “Progressives” just give carte blance to bullshit like “Sporting Purposes”, and even go on with pointing out that “Armor Piercing Ammo” is 100% legal if you have rifle ammo, because SPORT! But handguns have no “Sporting Purpose”…which is defined how? Hell there are pistol events in the fucking Olympics, let alone the myriad of handgun sports from special handgun hunting seasons in many states, to Bullseye Shooting, to action pistol, to the simple pastime of logging some range time with your favorite handgun and watching those groups get smaller.

And of course WTF does SPORT have to do with the right to keep and bear arms! Hell even the antis who can read will point out that the Amendment starts with “A Well Regulated Militia”…which is hardly the local trap club (tho technically those dudes are also the Militia, I’m just saying the Militia isn’t about shooting birds, clay or otherwise).

The ATF might have left this whole issue alone were it not for the decision by gun makers to begin manufacturing handguns chambered for 5.56×45. And this decision was based on the fact that AR-15 rifles, which had been a major part of the upswing in gun sales after the election of the Kenyan in 2008, can be turned into handguns by simply substituting a barrel of shorter length. And since the determination of what constitutes a ‘sporting’ cartridge is based on whether it is designed primarily for rifle as opposed to handgun use, now that civilians can start walking around with AR-15 handguns, the exemptions for sporting use of the ammunition no longer hold.

Well this IS the Huffington Post, so we can naturally assume anybody who pens an article there is an idiot, still WTF? Where are they getting information that somehow AR-pistols are NEW? I can’t find an exact date on when the first AR Pistol was made, either by a hobbyist (Which I can imagine was fairly soon after the first Colt Sporters hit the scene), or by a manufacturer, but Olympic Arms has been making their AR-pistol for over 20 years, and just on a whim I found this article on Iver Johnson making M1 Carbine pistols in the 1970s.

So of course the Author knows nothing about guns, but where did they get the idea that AR pistols are at all NEW? Also who’s feeding them this crap? Hell you can get a Thompson Center pistol chambered in just about any cartridge under the sun….

What the ATF is now proposing are exemptions for this ammunition based on a much narrower definition of the kinds of guns for which such ammo would be used. Basically, ammo manufacturers will be able to make and sell this cartridge only if it is loaded in a rimfire round (which is much less dangerous) or used in a single-shot handgun which, by definition, is rarely found in the hands of the bad guys committing all those crimes with guns. Which doesn’t mean that AR-15 shooters won’t have anything to load into their guns, ipso facto they might as well throw the guns away. What it does mean, however, is that the gun industry will finally have to fess up to the fact that AR-15 rifles, marketing campaigns notwithstanding, aren’t really sporting guns at all.

W T F ???? This has been a fact-free paragraph by the Huffington Post. Nothing at all said here is true, logical, or relevant…but BOY you can just SMELL the smugness wafting off of it!

The AR-15 sold in the United States can actually take two rounds: the 5.56×45 NATO cartridge with a 62-grain bullet, and the .223 Remington cartridge, normally loaded with a 55-grain shell. The 5.56 is also loaded with a 55-grain bullet, but the difference is that the heavier 5.56×45 penetrates more deeply, is significantly more lethal, but tends at long distances to be a bit less accurate than the 223. The 5.56×45 was adopted by the military because of its lethality, and it’s a stretch to think of it as a ‘sporting’ round.

You know that…or maybe THIS which is actually true.

Either way, let’s flush that one, it’s starting to stink, and move to the next, eerily similar one:

WASHINGTON (AP) – The Obama administration is considering banning a type of ammunition used in one of the most popular types of rifles because it says the bullets can pierce a police officer’s protective vest when fired from a handgun.

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is proposing the ban of some types of 5.56 mm rounds – or .223-caliber – used in widely available and popular AR-15-style rifles because the bullets can also be used in some new types of handguns. Other types of 5.56 mm rounds would still be legal to buy, own and fire from guns.

At least this article is clear that this is NOT a total ban on 5.56x45mm ammo, still there’s the odd “factoid” that AR pistols are new, and also the point that the ATF is actually making that M855 ball will penetrate police body armor if shot from an AR-pistol….but not any other 5.56×45 or .223 Rem ammo? Unless the ammo you’re using is frangible, it’ll punch through a soft police vest, which of course begs the question, WHy M855?

The rule change would affect only “M855 green tip” or “SS109” rounds with certain types of metal cores. People who already own the ammunition would be allowed to continue to legally own it, but manufacturers would not be allowed to produce, sell, import or distribute it.

Yeah, except from the law we have this:

a projectile or projectile core which may be used in a handgun and
which is constructed entirely (excluding the presence of traces of other
substances) from one or a combination of tungsten alloys, steel, iron,
brass, bronze, beryllium copper or depleted uranium; or
(ii)
a full jacketed projectile larger than .22 caliber designed and intended
for use in a handgun and whose jacket has a weight of more than 25
percent of the total weight of the projectile.

M855 doesn’t meet any of those definitions….but somebody, I assume from the Obama administration or the ATF is feeding a misleading version of the law to reporters.

An ATF spokeswoman, Ginger Colbrun, said Monday the agency is considering eliminating the exemption now because of the production of so-called AR pistols that can fire the same cartridge. The agency is accepting public comment about the proposed change until March 16 at the email address [email protected], by fax or postal mail. Colbrun said a final decision will be made later this year.

Well at least we have a name to one of the jokers claiming that AR-pistols are something new. Also hit that email address people, as much crap as all this is, it’s better to strangle it in its crib rather than take it to the courts or rely on our sorry excuse of representation to right the wrong.