Thoughts on S.397

This was the legislation passed which "grants legal immunity to firearm dealers and manufacturers in the event of wrongful misuse of their products by a third party." However, there was some anti-gun legislation slipped into the bill. As Liberty Belles point out there was also a ban on unspecified armour piercing ammunition. Now, maybe I'm being pedantic but I'd expect lawmakers to actually define terms when passing legislation- not leaving it so vague as to mean whatever anyone wants. Don't they get paid to do what they do?

Maybe it doesn't seem like such a big issue but the law seems to be so vague that the question has to be asked, ammunition that pierces what sort of armour? As you probably know there are different types of body armour providing different lever of protection. There's a good description of the various levels here at Wikipedia. The range is from Type I, which protects from the lowly .22LR right up to Type IV, which protects against .30 calibre armour piercing ammunition (as defined by those who deal with AP). Given the loose language of the legislation however, it seems plausible to assume that some hoplophobe could argue that all ammunition more powerful than .22LR is technically armour piercing- i.e. it will pierce Type I body armour. In other words, it is conceivable that this bill could be used to ban virtually all ammunition.

While the bill does not specify what armour piercing ammunition is, or attempt to, it does seem to leave that power entirely in the hands of the Attorney General:

"The Attorney General shall conduct a study to determine whether a uniform standard for the testing of projectiles against Body Armor is feasible."

It's also pertinent to note that while the bill bans "armour piercing ammunition" it leaves an exemption not only for the military- (which I assmue is what is meant by "use of the United States"- couldn't it also be argued that the United States is nothing more than the citizens which make up that fine country, meaning that the ban is essentially meaningless?)- but also "any department or agency of the United States, any State, or any department, agency, or political subdivision of a State."

Okay for the government but not for citizens.