Miko Tempski, SAF general counsel
By Dave Workman
Senior Editor
The federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives may not only be facing the anger of some 200-plus members of Congress, and millions of American citizens if the proposed ban on .223-caliber M855 ammunition is implemented, the agency can also plan on legal action, the Second Amendment Foundation warned.
In a three-page letter to ATF Director B. Todd Jones, SAF general counsel Miko Tempski wrote, “This proposal is just an attempt to limit firearms rights because the President’s other such attempts have been blocked through constitutional checks and balances on his power. Should the BATFE lawlessly proceed on this path, SAF intends to call on those checks and balances to stop the Administration’s executive overreach again.” The letter may be read here.
SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan Gottlieb told TGM that this is no idle threat. That much is clear from the organization’s court track record.
It financially supported a recent lawsuit in Texas by the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms that resulted in a judge’s ruling that the federal ban on interstate handgun transfers is unconstitutional. The landmark McDonald lawsuit that nullified Chicago’s handgun ban was a SAF project, along with the subsequent victories in Ezell v. City of Chicago that challenged the city’s handgun ordinance, and Moore v. Madigan, which – along with a similar action by the National Rifle Association – forced Illinois to adopt a concealed carry law.
SAF has been scoring victories on several fronts, while also losing a few in the process. But Gottlieb has hand-picked some of the top lawyers in the nation to take the legal fight forward, even if it means tangling with the federal government.
The proposed ban has already stirred up a proverbial hornet’s nest. There is bipartisan anger over the proposal in New York’s Niagara County. Sources say Capitol Hill is being flooded with calls and e-mails.
In his letter, Tempski stressed that M855 ammunition “is not armor piercing pursuant to the definition in the statute” which require that a particular cartridge fire a “full jacketed projectile large than .22-caliber designed and intended for use in a handgun…,” or to otherwise be fit for use in a handgun and have a core “entirely constructed” from a specific list of non-lead metals to be prohibited.
That list includes any one or a combination of tungsten alloys, steel, iron, brass, bronze, beryllium copper or depleted uranium. The only thing about this entire controversy that may be radioactive is the fact that the ATF is considering banning the ammunition, and the Obama White House is completely behind it.
It’s evident from Tempski’s letter that SAF isn’t bluffing. He told Jones that he’s already been authorized to take action “if this politically motivated, factually unsupported, and unlawful scheme is implemented.”
But he also said something else that was blistering.
“Short of hypotheticals,” Tempski wrote, “neither the proposed framework, nor its Administration supporters have cited a single example of the problem this new regulation is supposed to fix. Instead, they appeal to emotion, claiming that this is intended to protect a constituency the Administration has long attacked and vilified: America’s police officers.”
