ATF tries, fails to ban popular ammunition

Good day all. A few weeks ago, news broke that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosive planned to ban a popular type of ammunition known as the “Green tip.”

This ammunition comes in 5.56mm and is extremely popular as a practice round due to its generally low cost and high availability. It’s used in various semiautomatic rifles such as the “Dreaded” AR-15. The excuse that the BATFE, more commonly, (and politely), known as “F Troop,” was going to use was that this round could be loaded into a handgun and punch through a Kevlar vest that police generally wear during the course of their duties.

There was one small problem with that claim. The 5.56MM round, and it’s cousin the .223 caliber Remington round are meant to be fired from rifles and not from handguns. There are a few AR15 models that have short barrels and no rifle stock that are sold as pistols, but they are very expensive, and frankly, are nothing more then short barreled rifles.

Most police were not concerned because these firearms are easily seen. It’s pistols using pistol caliber ammunition they worry about because those can be carried by criminals in a concealed manner. Still, this was all the excuse that F-troop needed and they announced they were going to ban the ammunition.

Now for a little background on the ammunition in question. According to Wikipedia, (yes, yes, I know, but it’s a good place to start) the “Green tip” or as it is officially known as, the “M855” was developed in the 1980’s by the Europeans and designated the SS109.

The SS109 had a steel tip and lead rear and was not required to penetrate body armour. Barrels required at least a 1:9 in rifle twist, but needed a 1:7 in rifle twist to fire tracer ammunition. The U.S. designated the SS109 cartridge the M855 and first used it in the M16A2 rifle. The 62-grain round was heavier than the previous 55-grain M193. While the M855 had better armour penetrating ability, it is less likely to fragment after hitting a soft target. This lessens kinetic energy transfer to the target and reduces wounding capability. The M855 is yaw dependent, meaning it depends on the angle upon which it hits the target. If at a good angle, the round turns as it enters soft tissue, breaking apart and transferring its energy to what it hits. If impacting at a bad angle, it could pass through and fail to transfer its full energy.

There are some major issues with this ammunition as we discovered in Afghanistan and Iraq.

In Iraq, troops that engaged insurgents at less than 150 yards found that M855 rounds did not provide enough stopping power. In addition to not causing lethal effects with two or more rounds, they did not effectively penetrate vehicle windshields, even with many rounds fired at extremely close range. In Afghanistan, troops found that M855 rounds also suffered at long ranges. Although 5.56 mm rifles have an effective range of 450–600 meters, the M855 bullet’s performance falls off sharply beyond 300 meters. The ranges are even shorter for short-barreled carbines. Half of small-arms attacks were launched from 300–900 meter ranges. An M855 fired from an M4 Carbine has severely degraded performance beyond 150 meters.

In other words, the round is not all that great. I personally have not used it. The range I go to doesn’t allow it as the steel tip can damage their back wall. I have talked with people who have used it, especially those in the military and they are not impressed with the round at all. Now as for the BATFE, they didn’t care that the round was never meant to punch through armor, and had real problems even going through a windshield on a car. They decided to ban it. When the announcement came out, all Hell let loose. They finally backed off and withdrew their plans to ban the ammunition. Here are a few details from Fox News:

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is shelving a proposal to ban a popular but highly lethal type of bullet, amid opposition from gun-rights advocates and hundreds of members of Congress.

Amazing what getting hit in the head with a blunt object can do to get a bureaucracy’s attention isn’t it?

The agency said in a statement on Tuesday it would not seek to issue the final guidelines “at this time.” The proposal pertained to M855 “green tip” ammunition, used in the AR-15 rifle, which regulators looked at banning because it can pierce police body armor.

And here’s the dirty little secret F Troop won’t admit. All rifle caliber rounds can punch through body armor. This includes the armor used by American troops. The only way to stop a rifle round is to wear a special ceramic plate that slides into a pocket built into the vests that military troops and tactical police use. The plate is heavy and can restrict movement. However, it does do the job. There is a well known video of a soldier in Iraq being hit at near point blank range, and other than a bruise and some sore ribs, he was unharmed. That he survived was due to the plate in his vest.

[youtuber youtube=’http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jXMjh_XbkiI’]

Now the attacks against the plans by F Troop to ban this ammunition resulted in, as I mentioned above, a massive response from both Congress and the general public.

The ATF said it would instead wait until Americans have finished commenting on the federal regulations and evaluate their comments and suggestions before “proceeding with any framework.”

That’s bureaucrat speak for “Oh Hell, what did we do?”

The statement follows 52 senators and 238 House members joining in opposition to any attempt the Obama administration might make to ban the ammo.

And they were not happy at this attempt by F Troop, at the obvious behest of Barack Obama to try a back door ban on AR-15’s and all other firearms that use that particular cartridge.

“This attack on the Second Amendment is wrong and should be overturned,” said Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., who started the petition. “A clear, sizeable majority of the House agrees.”

Along with the majority of both houses, there was a very sizable public response as well.

The ATF said it has received more than 80,000 public comments and that an overwhelming number were critical of the proposal.

And that is just the official numbers. You can bet your bottom dollar that F Troopers around the country were getting button holed by anyone who knew them. They finally waved the white flag of surrender and gave in to the Constitution.

“I’m pleased to see that the ATF has now decided to abide by congressional intent of the law, and its exemption protecting the rights of law-abiding gun owners, Iowa GOP Sen. Chuck Grassley chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said after the ATF announcement. “ATF’s original proposal to short-circuit the exemption and limit access to rifle ammunition was an affront to the Second Amendment to the Constitution, and it was met with stiff rebuke.”

The BATFE has a long and storied past of utter incompetence, stupidity and flat out criminality. The most recent big scandal, (of many), was operation Fast&Furious which is still racking up a body count. For those who recall, it was the BATFE that initiated the assault on the Branch Dividians back in the 90’s. I won’t go into the details, but it was a bogus raid that ran into people who were able to defend themselves. The upshot was 4 dead BATFE agents and 16 others wounded.

More recently, there was another undercover operation where the BATFE set up a storefront sting in Milwaukee. All they achieved was losing one of their fully automatic M-4 rifles. They still haven’t located it. This recent attempt to ban a popular caliber cartridge was meant to be the “Camel’s nose under the tent.” It’s sole purpose was another way to strip the citizens of their Second Amendment rights. The idea was simple. You could have your rifles, but you couldn’t have any ammo for them. Basically you now have a very expensive club.

There is no doubt whatsoever that this stupid idea came out of the White House. It has Obama’s and Jarrett’s fingerprints all over it. I have no doubt that Eric “The Contemptible” Holder was up to his racist eyebrows in this as well. They’ve lost this round, (no pun intended), but you can bet they aren’t giving up. Stay alert.

Thatisall

~The Angry Webmaster~

[yasr_visitor_votes size=”medium”]