OPINION:
Here we go again.
President Obama failed to enact his anti-gun agenda legislatively because it is at odds with what the American people want. So he has pulled out his cellphone and his pen and gone to work. This time he is calling on his Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) to do his bidding.
He is using the ATF to impose gun control that he couldn’t get through Congress. He tried to ban America’s most popular rifle and failed. Now he is trying to ban the ammo.
The Obama administration’s latest attack on the Constitution is a dictatorial ban by ATF on popular M855 or “green tip” rifle ammunition — one of the most popular cartridges for the most popular rifle in America.
M855 ammunition has long been exempt from a federal ban because it is “primarily intended to be used for sporting purposes.” Nothing about this has changed. That is still how it’s used today.
What has changed is the goal. The goal is to give anti-gun allies, like former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, a victory. And they have ripped a page out of Mr. Bloomberg’s playbook to achieve the goal — a public campaign based on lies.
To justify the ban, ATF is citing law enforcement safety. They claim that law enforcement officers face a “significant threat” from the use of the ammunition when fired from handguns. This is false.
According to the FBI, not one single law enforcement officer has been killed with M855 ammunition fired from a handgun.
The executive director of the Fraternal Order of Police, James Pasco, stated: “Any ammunition is of concern to police in the wrong hands, but this specific round has historically not posed a law enforcement problem.”
In other words, just like every other attack on law-abiding gun owners and our freedom, Mr. Obama’s latest missive has nothing to do with police or public safety.
Rather, this is about a president who is desperate to enact his reckless gun control agenda before he leaves office. A president who is desperate to pay back his big-money, anti-gun backers, such as billionaire Michael Bloomberg, with a gun control win at any cost.
Mr. Obama doesn’t have to worry about facing the American electorate again. The fact that his party paid a heavy price for his gun control agenda in last November’s elections is a distant memory and of little concern to him today.
However, Mr. Obama’s ammo ban should be of serious concern to every gun owner in America — not only those who own AR-15s and other sporting rifles. If the president gets his way on this, he will establish a dangerous new precedent that paves the way for even more sweeping bans on other common forms of ammunition.
The National Rifle Association’s Institute for Legislative Action has worked with Republican Rep. Bob Goodlatte of Virginia, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, to draft a bipartisan letter signed by 238 members of the House to the ATF expressing their opposition to the Obama administration’s ammo ban. A similar letter will be coming from the U.S. Senate.
We’re also driving gun owner comments to the ATF website, mobilizing our national grass-roots network, meeting with elected officials and exposing the severity of this threat.
However, all gun owners and freedom-loving Americans who care about their Second Amendment rights need to make their voices heard today. Please go here https://www.nraila.org/take-action/write-your-lawmakers/stop-batfe/ as soon as possible, and tell your elected officials to oppose Mr. Obama’s ammunition ban.
For six long years, patriotic men and women have held the line against the most ruthlessly dishonest, anti-gun president our country has ever seen. We defeated his national gun registration scheme. We stopped his congressional allies from banning semi-automatic firearms. We made anti-gun U.S. representatives and senators pay at the ballot box last November.
By working together, we can stop this unlawful ban on our ammunition, save our freedom, and hand Mr. Obama and Mr. Bloomberg another stinging defeat.
• Chris W. Cox is executive director of National Rifle Association’s Institute for Legislative Action.
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