Senators Join House Colleagues to Call Out ATF Ammo Action

U.S. Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) is busy obtaining the signatures of his colleagues on aSenate letter to ATF Director B. Todd Jones opposing the Obama administration’s effort to ban 5.56 M855 “Green Tip” ammunition. More than half of the members of the U.S. House of Representatives, some 239 in all, signed a similar letter. The House letter calls into question the reasoning, manner and fast-track timing behind the bureau’s announcement it sought to end the exemption for the ammunition under the sporting purposes test that has been in effect since 1986. See the NSSF Action Alert and email ATF today. You should also email or Tweet your Member of Congress.

• CONSERVATION LEADERSHIP ORGANIZATIONS WRITE ATF . . . The American Wildlife Conservation Partners (AWCP), a consortium of 42 organizations representing more than six million individual members, today sent a letter to ATF Director Jones expressing concern about how the proposed framework will impact the amount of Pittman-Robertson excise taxes collected on the sale of ammunition, which provides vital funding for wildlife management activities across the country. That letter follows one from the Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies (AFWA) also asking for a comment-period extension (90 days) and which notes “… Not only does this run the risk of decreasing interest and participation in these sports as ammunition choices become more limited and more expensive, but as participation potentially decreases, so do sales of taxable goods and hunting licenses.” Earlier, NSSF also called for an extension of the comment deadline. Read the NSSF letter.

• THE WHITE HOUSE SNEAK PLAY . . . A late Friday news dump before the long February President’s Day holiday weekend is a sure sign extra effort is being made to obscure something big, as is the case with the ATF’s proposal to end the sporting use exemption for M855 ammo. “The proposed change represents a massive overreach by the Obama administration,” writes the NSSF’s Larry Keane. “It confirms that the White House is willing to try virtually anything to pursue its gun control agenda in defiance of Congress and existing law. This time they are hiding in plain sight behind ATF and the agency’s rule-making authority.” Read more.