The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives announced Tuesday it “will not at this time seek to issue a final framework” implementing a proposed ban on what it’s still insisting is “armor piercing ammunition.” The special advisory issued by the Public Affairs Division noted that with the comment period scheduled to close by next Monday, “ATF has already received more than 80,000 comments, which will be made publicly available as soon as practicable.”

‘Although ATF endeavored to create a proposal that reflected a good faith interpretation of the law and balanced the interests of law enforcement, industry, and sportsmen, the vast majority of the comments received to date are critical of the framework, and include issues that deserve further study,” the advisory explained. “ATF will process the comments received, further evaluate the issues raised therein, and provide additional open and transparent process (for example, through additional proposals and opportunities for comment) before proceeding with any framework.”

While an angry reaction from gun owners and a letter opposing the ban signed by 52 senators challenged implementing the ban and making it stick, the fact that 5.56 M855 “green tip” ammunition is off the table for now by no means indicates a willingness to give up a power the agency has exercised in the recent past.

Case in point, in April of last year, ATF issued a special advisory banning importation of 7N6 5.45×39 ammunition for the same reasons – that it was not considered “sporting,” that it was considered “armor piercing,” and because “ATF’s analysis also concluded that the ammunition could be used in a commercially available handgun … which was approved for importation into the United States in November 2011.”

“The Special Advisory letter claims that in 2011 a Polish made 5.45×39 Onyks 89S pistol was submitted for import approval by an unspecified entity,” The Bang Switch reported at the time. “It’s so obscure in fact that only 200 were produced in Poland and to my knowledge none were ever imported nor sold on the U.S. market as semi-automatic pistols.”

That hardly matters when the criteria being argued about include concepts like “sporting purposes.” The term appears nowhere in the Constitution, and its first documented enforcement over firearms was in 1938 German law. Likewise, the Constitution is similarly silent on any branch of government, let alone a federal agency, having legitimate delegated authority to override the clear “shall not be infringed” mandate in the Second Amendment.

As for potential armor-piercing capability, the opinion rendered in the Supreme Court’s 1939 Miller decision provides guidance on founding intent. The court held a weapon falls under Second Amendment protection if it “is any part of the ordinary military equipment, or that its use could contribute to the common defense.”

While arguments are correct that M855 ball ammo does not meet ATF’s own definition of “armor piercing,” the larger point, that there is no legitimate authority to impose such criteria in the first place, is being missed. So when ATF declares they’ll be back, until such time as that usurpation is addressed and resolved, it’s prudent to believe they will be, at the first political opportunity. (See “ATF Temporarily Shelves Proposed Ammo Ban While Power to Proceed Remains Intact”, originally posted HERE)

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