My colleague Katie Pavlich has dropped the bombshell that the ATF already decided—unilaterally and in violation of federal law—to ban incredibly common M855 ball ammunition in January.

On Friday February 13 at 4:00 pm, the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms released a proposal to ban commonly used M855 “green tip” AR-15 ammunition under the guise of law enforcement safety. The same day the proposal was released, on a Friday of a three day holiday weekend, ATF opened up a shortened 30-day period for the public to submit comments about the new regulation.

But it turns out, ATF has been working on a ban of AR-15 “green-tip” ammunition for quite some time and has already issued the ban in its new, 2014 Regulation Guide.

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The Office of Management and Budget must review and approve ATF Regulation Guides, which again, come out approximately every 10 years. This can take months and changes to Regulation Guides are not easily or often made. Because of the lengthy amount of time it takes for OMB to approve a new ATF Regulation Guide, ATF’s comment period is just for show. ATF officials and the White House have (and never did) no interest in actually listening to or considering comments that are currently being submitted. The exemption for the ammunition in question has already been stripped out of the regulation handbook moving forward and “green-tip” has been reclassified as “armor piercing.” The rules have been changed. Further, because of local rules and regulations in different states across the country having their own “armor piercing” standards based on ATF regulations, thousands of people in possession of AR-15 green tip ammunition have been turned into felons overnight.

Please, go read all of the article.

When you’re done, I’d like to see if any of you can help me understand how a coldly calculated effort to go around the Legislative branch, grossly exceed their legal regulatory authority, violate the Administrative Records Act, and undermine the Second Amendment, isn’t the act of a rogue and tyrannical Executive Branch.

This criminal action is worthy of not just a congressional oversight investigation, but an independent counsel’s investigation of the ATF, Department of Justice, and the White House for possible violations of federal law.