View Single Post
Old March 12, 2009, 05:14 PM   #19
44 AMP
Staff
 
Join Date: March 11, 2006
Location: Upper US
Posts: 28,617
How soon we forget

Quote:
Could be because "armor piercing" usually had in mind the piercing of steel or aluminum armor on armored vehicles, not the soft wearable body armor. If they used the latter definition, any rifle cartridge is suddenly "armor piercing" and therefore illegal, and that's just a ludicrous position- one you won't find even mild anti-gun folks taking.
But you will find the rabid anti-gun folks taking that position, including the esteemed Senator from Mass, so recently diagnosed with a brain tumor (something we could have told them years ago, based on his actions)

The fight in Congress back in the days of the "Cop Killer Bullet" hysteria was what lead to the regs as they now are. As originally introduced, the bill would have banned all ammo capable of penetrating soft body armor vests. Kennedy was a big supporter. This bill would have outlawed virtually every single centerfire rifle cartridge, along with many pistol loadings.

The NRA fought hard, but it was an uphill fight against considerable political pressure. Something was going to be passed. What the NRA got as a compromise was the law we have today, preserving nearly all common ammo, as falling outside the written definition of "armor piercing" as finally adopted.

Not a real win, but a hell of a lot better than the loss we were facing had the bill been passed as originally proposed.
__________________
All else being equal (and it almost never is) bigger bullets tend to work better.
44 AMP is offline  
 
Page generated in 0.02365 seconds with 8 queries