I 
109TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 1136 
To protect the Nation’s law enforcement officers by banning the Five-seveN 
Pistol and 5.7 x 28mm SS190 and SS192 cartridges, testing handguns 
and ammunition for capability to penetrate body armor, and prohibiting 
the manufacture, importation, sale, or purchase of such handguns or 
ammunition by civilians. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
MARCH 7, 2005 
Mr. ENGEL (for himself and Mr. KENNEDY of Rhode Island) introduced the 
following bill; which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary 
A BILL 
To protect the Nation’s law enforcement officers by banning 
the Five-seveN Pistol and 5.7 x 28mm SS190 and SS192 
cartridges, testing handguns and ammunition for capa-
bility to penetrate body armor, and prohibiting the manu-
facture, importation, sale, or purchase of such handguns 
or ammunition by civilians. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Protect Law Enforce-
ment Armor Act’’ or the ‘‘PLEA Act’’.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS AND PURPOSE. 
(a) FINDINGS.—Congress finds the following: 
(1) Law enforcement is facing a new threat 
from handguns and accompanying ammunition, 
which are designed to penetrate police body armor, 
being marketed and sold to civilians. 
(2) A Five-seveN Pistol and accompanying am-
munition, manufactured by FN Herstal of Belgium 
as the ‘‘5.7 x 28 mm System’’, has recently been re-
covered by law enforcement on the streets. The Five- 
seveN Pistol and 5.7 x 28mm SS192 cartridges are 
legally available for purchase by civilians under cur-
rent law. 
(3) The Five-seveN Pistol and 5.7 x 28mm 
SS192 cartridges are capable of penetrating level 
IIA armor. The manufacturer advertises that ammu-
nition fired from the Five-seveN will perforate 48 
layers of Kevlar up to 200 meters and that the am-
munition travels at 2100 feet per second. 
(4) The Five-seveN Pistol, and similar hand-
guns designed to use ammunition capable of pene-
trating body armor, pose a devastating threat to law 
enforcement. 
(b) PURPOSE.—The purpose of this Act is to protect 
the Nation’s law enforcement officers by—
(1) testing handguns and ammunition for capa-
bility to penetrate body armor; and 
(2) prohibiting the manufacture, importation, 
sale, or purchase by civilians of the Five-seveN Pis-
tol, ammunition for such pistol, or any other hand-
gun that uses ammunition found to be capable of 
penetrating body armor. 
SEC. 3. ARMOR PIERCING AMMUNITION. 
(a) EXPANSION OF DEFINITION OF ARMOR PIERCING 
AMMUNITION.—Section 921(a)(17)(B) of title 18, United 
States Code, is amended— 
(1) in clause (i), by striking ‘‘or’’ at the end; 
(2) in clause (ii), by striking the period at the 
end and inserting ‘‘; and’’; and 
(3) by adding at the end the following: 
‘‘(iii) a projectile that— 
‘‘(I) may be used in a handgun; and 
‘‘(II) the Attorney General deter-
mines, pursuant to section 926(d), to be 
capable of penetrating body armor.’’. 
(b) DETERMINATION OF CAPABILITY OF PROJEC-
TILES TO PENETRATE BODY ARMOR.—Section 926 of 
title 18, United States Code, is amended by adding at the 
end the following:
‘‘(d)(1) Not later than 1 year after the date of enact-
ment of this subsection, the Attorney General shall pro-
mulgate standards for the uniform testing of projectiles 
against Body Armor Exemplar. 
‘‘(2) The standards promulgated pursuant to para-
graph (1) shall take into account, among other factors, 
variations in performance that are related to the type of 
handgun used, the length of the barrel of the handgun, 
the amount and kind of powder used to propel the projec-
tile, and the design of the projectile. 
‘‘(3) As used in paragraph (1), the term ‘Body Armor 
Exemplar’ means body armor that the Attorney General 
determines meets minimum standards for the protection 
of law enforcement officers.’’. 
SEC. 4. ARMOR PIERCING HANDGUNS AND AMMUNITION. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—Section 922 of title 18, United 
States Code, is amended by adding after subsection (y): 
‘‘(z) FIVE-SEVEN PISTOL.— 
‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—It shall be unlawful for any 
person to manufacture, import, market, sell, ship, 
deliver, possess, transfer, or receive— 
‘‘(A) the Fabrique Nationale Herstal Five- 
SeveN Pistol; 
‘‘(B) 5.7 x 28mm SS190 and SS192 car-
tridges; or