Regular readers know that I try to keep abreast of changes in gun laws, both because guns are involved in a significant number of serious crimes and because the gun laws themselves are often criminal provisions. There’s been considerable recent media coverage of a proposal by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives to change the legal status of a specific type of ammunition. Depending on who you talk to, the move is either a technical reclassification that will improve officer safety at no significant cost to law-abiding gun owners, or President Obama’s first step towards gun control by executive action. As usual for a School of Government piece, this post doesn’t take a side, but does provide some facts. General background. Federal law generally prohibits the importation and manufacture of “armor piercing ammunition,” 18 U.S.C. § 922(a)(7)-(8), and imposes other limits on transactions involving such ammunition, 18 U.S.C. § 922(b)(5) (requiring dealers to keep records of certain permitted sales of covered ammunition). A federal statute defines “armor piercing ammunition” as: A projectile or projectile core [basically, a bullet] which “may be used in a handgun” and which is made of certain listed hard metals, including steel, or A heavily jacketed projectile that is larger than .22 caliber and is intended for use in a handgun [this prong of the definition isn’t important for present purposes] There are some exceptions to the definition, including one for any “projectile which the Attorney General finds is primarily intended to be used [...]
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