Title: Armor-Piercing Bullets Act of 2017
Policy area: Crime and Law Enforcement

Summary:
Armor-Piercing Bullets Act of 2017
This bill establishes a framework for determining whether certain armor piercing ammunition is primarily intended for sporting purposes. Current law prohibits the import, manufacture, and distribution of armor piercing ammunition. However, armor piercing ammunition that is primarily intended for sporting purposes is exempt from the prohibition and may be lawfully imported, manufactured, and distributed.

[Congressional Bills 115th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 4721 Introduced in House (IH)]

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115th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 4721

To enact into law a framework for deciding whether certain projectiles 
   are ``primarily intended for sporting purposes'' for purposes of 
   determining whether the projectiles are armor piercing ammunition.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                           December 21, 2017

Mr. Engel (for himself, Mr. Vargas, Mrs. Watson Coleman, Mr. Meeks, Ms. 
  Speier, Mr. Grijalva, and Mr. Cohen) introduced the following bill; 
          which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To enact into law a framework for deciding whether certain projectiles 
   are ``primarily intended for sporting purposes'' for purposes of 
   determining whether the projectiles are armor piercing ammunition.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Armor-Piercing Bullets Act of 
2017''.

SEC. 2. FRAMEWORK FOR DECIDING WHETHER CERTAIN PROJECTILES ARE 
              ``PRIMARILY INTENDED FOR SPORTING PURPOSES'' FOR PURPOSES 
              OF DETERMINING WHETHER THE PROJECTILES ARE ARMOR PIERCING 
              AMMUNITION.

    Section 921(a)(17) of title 18, United States Code, is amended by 
adding at the end the following:
    ``(D)(i) For purposes of subparagraph (C), a .22 caliber projectile 
that otherwise would be armor piercing ammunition shall be considered 
to be primarily intended to be used for sporting purposes if the 
projectile weighs 40 grains or less and is loaded into a rimfire 
cartridge.
    ``(ii)(I)(aa) Except as provided in clause (i), a projectile that 
otherwise would be armor piercing ammunition shall, for purposes of 
subparagraph (C), be considered to be primarily intended to be used for 
sporting purpose if the projectile is loaded into a cartridge for which 
the only handgun that is readily available in the ordinary channels of 
commercial trade is a single shot handgun, subject to subclause (II).
    ``(bb) In subclause (aa), the term `single shot handgun' means a 
break-open or bolt action handgun that can accept only a single 
cartridge manually, and does not accept or use a magazine or other 
ammunition feeding device, but does not include a pocket pistol or 
derringer-type firearm.
    ``(II) For purposes of subparagraph (C), the Attorney General may 
treat a projectile as not primarily intended to be used for sporting 
purposes if substantial evidence exists that the projectile is not 
primarily intended to be used for sporting purposes.''.
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