Hunter86004
Member
Not to stray off the topic of bump stocks, but the ATF attempt to ban M855 had sound legal reasoning behind it based strictly on the statute. The statute bans any handgun ammunition with a steel core (mild or hardened is is not specified in the law), and the slew of AR pistols now on the market made the 5.56x45 cartridge a pistol cartridge.
18 U.S. Code § 921(a)(17)(B)
(B)The term “armor piercing ammunition” means—
(i) 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.
The only exception to the above is a finding by the Attorney General that the projectile in question is primarily intended to be used for sporting or industrial purposes. M855 currently operates under just such a sporting purposes exemption, but any future Attorney General could reverse that decision.
M855 projectiles do not fit under the definition of armor piercing because they do not have a core constructed ENTIRELY of iron or steel. There is a lead slug behind the steel penetrator, which excludes it from being AP and makes it handgun legal. Had ATF not backed away and used the 'sporting purposes' excuse, I would like to know what their "sound legal reasoning" would have been since only Congress and the president's signature can change a statute. Same thing with bump stocks which do not fit the statutory definition of a machinegun.