UPDATE: White House pins ammo ban proposal on police
President Obama believes a ban on M855 “green tip” ammunition, the bullets mostly associated with AR-15 rifles, will help save the lives of police officers.
White House press secretary Josh Earnest said, “We are looking at additional ways to protect our brave men and women in law enforcement, and believe that this process is valuable for that reason alone.”
The issue here however is that no Law Enforcement organizations have actually called for a ban on the ammunition. Most have come out in opposition to the ban.
The Washington Examiner reports that James Pasco, a top police representative, said there is no history of criminals using a popular round against police officers. Pasco is the executive director of the Washington office of the Fraternal Order of Police, the world’s largest organization of sworn law enforcement officers. They currently have more than 325,000 members.
“Any ammunition is of concern to police in the wrong hands, but this specific round has historically not posed a law enforcement problem,” said Pasco. He continued to say the round is commonly used for target practice and “is not typically used against law enforcement.”
Last month, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives made a move to classify the ammunition as “armor piercing” and then ban it. Pasco is “not finding fault” with this move, but reiterates, “”While this round will penetrate soft body armor, it has not historically posed a threat to law enforcement.”
The National Association of Police Organization, which represents over 1,000 police units and associations, is another one of the many police organizations to oppose the ban. Their executive director, William Johnson, told Fox News “The notion that all of a sudden a new pistol requires banning what had long been perfectly legal ammunition doesn’t seem to make a lot of sense to many officers.”
However, he does believe that the bullets already banned under law should remain banned.
“Some bullets… such as ones coated with Teflon, really are specifically designed to defeat bullet proof vests, and we think they should remain illegal,” he said.
More than 100 Congress members have signed a letter to oppose the ban. Many argue the ban is an attempt to lessen the popularity of the nation’s most popular gun, the AR-15.
Someone has seen to many movies….
“Some bullets… such as ones coated with Teflon, really are specifically designed to defeat bullet proof vests, and we think they should remain illegal,” he said.