The NY Times Editorial Board Lied About M855 Ammunition

New York City’s most infamous pro-communist, Mexican-owned newspaper, the New York Times decided to author a fantasy-filled op-ed in support of the Obama Administration’s backdoor attempt to grossly exceed the ATF’s legal boundaries in an attempt to ban M855 ball ammunition.

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M855 is one of the most common lead-core rifle cartridges sold, and fired by the most popular rifle sold in the United States, the AR-15.

Bearing Arms editor Bob Owens decided to “fisk” the dishonest op-ed, Protect the Police From Armor-Piercing Bullets, via Twitter, and the results weren’t pretty for the Times.

 

The nation’s police forces should be the first to rally behind a federal proposal to ban the sale and manufacture of the 5.56-millimeter steel-core bullet. The bullet can be used in newly adapted handguns to provide lethal force to pierce the vests and body armor used by law enforcement officers.

 

 

Until now, the powerful “M855 green tip” bullet has been legal for use in AR-15 semiautomatic rifles, typically used by target shooters and hunters. But the gun industry’s reckless development of new handguns that use the bullet — criminals prefer handguns over rifles — has led the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to sensibly propose banning it in the name of greater gun safety.

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Actually, this isn’t fair. Some AR-15s actually shoot M855 pretty accurately out to 300-400 meters, so it is useful for mid-range target practice, small game hunting, and predator control as well.

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You can of course build them cheaper, but most AR-15 pistols cost around $1,000 and up. They aren’t something you’ll find very often except in the hands of enthusiastic AR-15 collectors, which tend to be gainfully-employed, fiscally-stable members of the middle class.

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This fact is well-documented.

 

As we’ve noted here previously, LEOPA 1986 has a very specific definition of what constitutes “armor piercing” ammunition. 18 U.S.C. 921(a)(17)(B) provides:

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(B) The term “armor piercing ammunition” means— (i) a projectile or projectile core which may be used in a handgun and which is constructed entirely (excluding the presence of traces of other substances) from one or a combination of tungsten alloys, steel, iron, brass, bronze, beryllium copper or depleted uranium; or (ii) a full jacketed projectile larger than .22 caliber designed and intended for use in a handgun and whose jacket has a weight of more than 25 percent of the total weight of the projectile.

 

 

 

 

 

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CORRECTION: In one of the Tweets I’d claimed that Delta Force used CAR-15s with 10.5″ barrels and M855 ammuntion. SGM (retired) Kyle Lamb of Viking Tactics informs me that they used CAR-15s with 14.5″ barrels in the Battle of Mogadishu. He would know, as he was one of the Delta operators on that mission. He also said that the M855 worked in Somalia “if you hit them in the vitals.”

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I’m pulling that tweet as a correction.

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