The Second Amendment is at risk': Dozens of senators warn ATF against ammo ban

Fifty-three Republican senators are warning that plans by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to regulate a popular type of rifle ammunition is a significant danger to the Second Amendment, and is not a move permitted by a 1986 law passed by Congress.

"Second Amendment rights require not only access to firearms but to bullets," the senators wrote in their letter to the ATF, which was spearheaded by Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa). "If law-abiding gun owners cannot obtain rifle ammunition, or face substantial difficulty in finding ammunition available and at reasonable prices because government entities are banning such ammunition, then the Second Amendment is at risk."

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) spearheaded a letter calling on the ATF to abandon its proposal to ban certain kinds of ammunition. Image: Drew Angerer/Getty Images

The ATF has put out a proposed framework that would let officials reassess whether certain types of ammunition that can pierce armor should continue to benefit from an exemption under the Law Enforcement Officers Protection Act. That law, known as LEOPA, calls for a ban on armor-piercing rounds, but allows the government to exempt projectiles that are found to be "primarily intended to be used for sporting purposes."

The ATF's framework, which is still subject to an open comment period, indicates the ATF is prepared to ban the M855 cartridge, a popular round that is used for the popular AR-15 rifle.

But the senators said LEOPA doesn't allow the ATF to decide on its own whether there's enough evidence to show certain bullets aren't primarily intended for sporting purposes, and then to decide if that threshold has been met. "The statute was not enacted to give authority to ATF to do either," they wrote.

"ATF seems to have decided to ban ammunition types that the law did not ban, then developed from whole cloth an 'objective' test to supposedly provide it with the ability to ban the ammunition types it already had selected for prohibition," they added.

Late last week, the ATF clarified that it erred when it published a regulation guide that indicated the M855 cartridge has already been banned. But the ATF is still taking comments on its proposed framework, and some have called on that comment period to be extended into the summer in light of the controversy surrounding its proposal.

Read the letter from GOP senators here: