Speaking to Fox Business’ Lou Dobbs on March 4, the NRA’s Wayne LaPierre said that the ATF’s proposed M855 ammo ban is a perfect segue into bans on larger caliber hunting rounds as well.
LaPierre told Dobbs, “[Obama] can’t win at the ballot box” and “he can’t win in the Congress” on gun control. So “now he’s trying to act like a dictator and planning on forcing this ammo ban on the American public by executive regulation.”
LaPierre said, “If he can ban [the M855 round], because it pierces soft body armor, he can also ban the .30-06, a really popular hunting cartridge.”
He added that an M855 ban would also open the door to bans on “the 300 Win. Mag, the .375… [and] every cartridge in between.”
He said the standard being used to ban M855 ammo sets such a low threshold for intervention that Obama can can ban “all rifle cartridges because all of them pierce soft body armor.”
A flabbergasted Dobbs said, “I can’t understand how a president even assumes he has this kind of power.”
LaPierre said Obama is trying to “stretch” his executive powers. He then ended his time with Dobbs by making clear that the claim that Obama is banning the M855 round for police safety is a spurious one. He pointed to recent comments by Fraternal Order of Police executive director James Pasco, who said the proposed ban is not necessary.
AWR Hawkins on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.