Bullet Ban

To no big surprise, Obama is trying to use his presidential powers to enact a bullet ban for the popular AR-15 rifle. This military surplus round in question has a steel core and could be considered “armor piercing” and used to defeat the bullet proof vests police wear. First off, I’d like to know how many police across America have been wounded or killed by armor piercing (AP) ammo. I would venture to say few to none. Secondly, the average bullet proof vest is designed to stop pistol ammo that has low velocity/energy as compared to the AR-15/.223 round (and the like). In other words, any bullet type fired from the AR-15/.233 will penetrate the “bullet proof” vest worn by most police. This steel core ammo makes no difference to that end. Further, if anyone has designs to use a weapon against police with the intent to puncture the standard body armor, they need not depend on the ammo/bullet type Obama is seeking to ban. Anyone with an ounce of imagination can simply use a higher velocity weapon/ammo and/or drill out and drop a steel ball bearing into the cavity of commercially sold “hollow point” ammo to incorporate a hard steel “passenger” to travel along with ordinary bullet to penetrate body armor.

Most or nearly all body armor worn by police can be defeated by any bullet type provided the bullet is fired from a weapon that is of high velocity and energy. The bullet type Obama seeks to ban amounts to eradicating one type of mosquito. With that certain specie gone, there are endless other types to fill the void with no positive impact to be gained! Obama is still sulking he could not impose an assault weapons ban and now desires to obtain some partial political victory to ban a certain bullet type. In a practical sense, this whole bullet ban topic is much ado about nothing. The entire bullet type matter as presented in the news is pointless and irrelevant if there is sincere objective to save the lives of law enforcement personal.

Karl Schmidt

Farmville, Virginia