Sen. Rand Paul is asking his supporters to fight the Obama administration’s recent move to ban one of the most commonly used types of bullet in the country.
“Recently, Obama’s Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (BATF) announced they will ban .223 M855 ammunition,” the Kentucky Republican wrote in a letter posted on the website of political action committee, RANDPAC. “The BATF has a March 17th deadline to hear public comments on this outrageous assault on the Second Amendment. And I’m counting on your immediate action to help RANDPAC flood the agency with a message from America’s pro-gun majority.”
BATF announced last month it was proposing to put the ban on the ammo — which is used in the AR-15-style semi-automatic, one of the the nation’s top selling-rifles — on a fast track. The “armor-piercing” ammunition was exempted from BATF’s 1986 ban on armor piercing bullets because it of its use mostly in sport AR-15s. If the new proposed ban were to move forward, possession of the bullets would not be criminalized, but sales of them would be prohibited.
“This seems to be an area where everyone should agree: that if there are armor-piercing bullets available that can fit into easily concealed weapons, that it puts our law enforcement at considerably more risk,” White House press secretary Josh Earnest said last week. “So I’d put this in the category of common-sense steps that the government can take to protect the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding Americans while also making sure that our law enforcement officers who are walking the beat every day can do their jobs just a little bit more safely.
Paul, a possible 2016 presidential candidate, joins a slew of lawmakers, as well as the National Rifle Association, in expressing opposition to the proposed ban.
“Your grassroots muscle played a vital role in defeating President Obama’s national gun registration scheme in 2013,” Paul wrote in his letter. “And your support is needed again to defend our Second Amendment rights in 2015.”
