@lefteye, except no one ever has been charged (or apparently arrested) for possession of casing in DC. What miller, and I think sensationally, is noting is a clarification at a roll call that no one should be arrested for it.
I would bet such a question, of what constitutes controlled ammo reloading materials , has come up for clarification in scores of police departments over the years. It certainly came up before the Mass courts several times (see below link)
Cops asking for clarification, and getting it, at a roll call is interesting, but pretty thin grounds for the way Miller spun it. There are many, much much worse problems with DC gun law.
Essentially the episode might have transpire such:
Friday Roll call in some MPDC district:
Officer:"Sargent, are spent casings ammo? Are they reloading supplies? I it illegal to posses them without a DC firearms registration?"
Sargent: "I will get back to you on that, next week:
Next Monday roll call:
Sargent: "Regardless of the fuzziness, we will not be arresting people for a few spent shell casings."
By the way this has come up before in other jurisdictions:
http://www.massbar.org/publications/...-shell-casings