Editorial - Obama AR-15 Bullet Ban Lifted, Gun Rights Still Target

Fifty-two senators, 238 House members and 80,000 public comments have forced the ATF to pull back for "more study" its proposed ban on ammo for the AR-15, the leading gun for hunting and self-defense.The Second Amendment, written in the era of muskets, does not mention what arms we have the right to keep and bear.

But we have an idea, based on how they were used: to protect their owners' homes, businesses, farms and families, and to resist the tyranny of government, which during the American Revolution was the British crown.

Snarky gun-control zealots say the amendment certainly doesn't mean the right to possess tanks or tactical nukes, so it's merely a question of where we draw the line. They would draw the line at the AR-15 and its counterparts — which are commonly used for legal, defensive purposes.

The AR-15 and its variants have long been a gun-control target based largely on the "scary" appearance of the particular firearm, rather than on any difference in lethality. It, and the 5.56mm M855 "light-green tip" ammo commonly used for target practice, have been said to be a danger to law enforcement, though no evidence to back up that claim has been forthcoming.

Attempts to reinstate the ineffective and expired 1994 Assault Weapons ban, which targeted "scary-looking" guns, failed. So the Obama administration decided to go after the bullets that the AR-15 uses, reclassifying AR-15 ammo as an armor-piercing "NATO round" more fit for combat than self-defense or hunting.

The problem is, police don't agree. They dismiss the 5.56mm M855 as not being a significant threat, with no record of use in violent crime.

"While this round will penetrate soft body armor, it has not historically posed a threat to law enforcement," according to James Pasco, executive director of the Washington office of the 325,000-member Fraternal Order of Police, the world's largest organization of sworn law enforcement officers.

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives received more than 800,000 comments, some of them ear-piercing, over the proposal. A letter written by Sen. Charles Grassley to the ATF noted that when Congress wrote the 1986 Law Enforcement Officers Protection Act, it specifically exempted ammunition that was used primarily for hunting and target practice.

So the proposed ATF ammo ban was quite illegal.

"ATF's proposed restriction of the M855 cartridge is particularly serious in the light of efforts to ban other forms of ammunition," Grassley wrote in the letter signed by a majority of the U.S. Senate.

He added that "efforts to ban lead ammunition are proceeding apace. Second Amendment rights require not only access to firearms but to bullets."

As we've noted, and which Grassley commented on, the Environmental Protection Agency has tried to ban the production of lead ammunition on the grounds that lead from spent ammo finds its way into groundwater and the food chain. It claims that lead ammo can cause elevated lead levels in blood just from handling it.

The Second Amendment not only threatens police but the environment as well, it seems.

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