The Biden administration has reportedly ordered an ammunition manufacturer to stop selling Americans some 5.56mm rounds, which is the most common for the AR-15 semi-automatic rifle.
In an effort to severely limit the sale of ammo used in AR-15s, the U.S. military has ordered Winchester – which manages the U.S. Army’s Lake City ammunition plant – to stop selling its excess M855/SS109 (5.56mm) ammo to the public, The Truth About Guns reported citing a source close to the matter.
The Lake City plant, located in Independence, Missouri, produces nearly 30 percent of the commercial market’s sales of 5.56 ammo.
Larry Keane, the National Shooting Sports Foundation’s general counsel and senior vice president, first revealed the administration’s plans in a tweet on Wednesday.
“The U.S. Military is actively considering shutting down the sale is M855/SS109 ammo from Lake City to the commercial market. @NSSF @NRAILA #GreenTipAmmo @POTUS @JoeBiden,” Keane tweeted.
The cartridges that Keane mentioned are very popular forms of 5.56 ammo. The Biden administration’s new order will likely disrupt the supply of 5.56 ammo and cause prices to increase.
The Lake City plant is owned by the federal government but operated by private contractors, according to the National Rifle Association, and produces “well over a billion rounds of ammunition per year.”
“Ammunition in excess of the government’s requirements has long been made available to the private commercial market. Lake City’s output, according to some estimates, accounts for one-third of the 5.56 caliber ammunition available to U.S. consumers,” the NRA continued. “Needless to say, this attack on America’s ammunition supply is just the most recent in a long line of anti-freedom attacks by the Biden Administration.”
The restriction of Americans’ ammo supply is the latest anti-gun action supported by President Joe Biden, who has repeatedly called for the outright ban of AR-15 rifles. Biden praised a recent bipartisan agreement on new gun control measures – which includes incentives for state-run gun confiscation – but argued it still isn’t enough.
“Obviously, it does not do everything that I think is needed, but it reflects important steps in the right direction, and would be the most significant gun safety legislation to pass Congress in decades,” Biden said in a White House statement on Sunday. “With bipartisan support, there are no excuses for delay, and no reason why it should not quickly move through the Senate and the House. Each day that passes, more children are killed in this country: the sooner it comes to my desk, the sooner I can sign it, and the sooner we can use these measures to save lives.”