At least two prominent gun-control organizations denied that they pushed for the ban on M855 ammunition, reports the Hill.com
Both Everytown for Gun Safety and Americans for Responsible Solutions claimed to have avoided getting involved in the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives attempt to reclassify “green tip” ammo.
“We have sent dozens of recommendations to the [Obama] administration on what they can do to prevent gun violence — this ammo proposal has never been one of them,” Erika Soto Lamb, spokeswoman for Everytown for Gun Safety, told the Hill.com.
Likewise, Mark Prentice, spokesman for Americans for Responsible Solutions, the gun control organization founded by former CongresswomanGabrielle Giffords (D-AZ) echoed that position.
“We are focused on keeping guns out of the hands of dangerous people and protecting the rights of responsible, law-abiding gun owners, not banning bullets or other forms of hardware,” said Prentice.
The nation’s gun lobby has been insistent that the ammo ban is a “backdoor” attempt to restrict usage of the AR-15 and that the Obama administration is “pandering to billionaire Michael Bloomberg and his gun control groups.”
“Since they haven’t been able to ban America’s most popular rifle, they are trying to ban the ammunition instead,” NRA chief lobbyist Chris Cox said.
The ATF announced Tuesday that it will suspend its reclassification of M855. Yet, that doesn’t mean the issue want come up again in the future. It most likely will. And now that it’s on everyone’s radar, it’ll be interesting to watch whether Bloomberg and Giffords’ groups sit on the sidelines once again.