How Sens. Chuck Grassley, Rand Paul, and 80,000 Other Americans Clobbered an Ammo BanAt the end of February, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms issued a lengthy epistle on "determining whether certain projectiles are 'primarily intended for sporting purposes.'" Anyone who read the 17-page memo would learn that the ATF was considering a ban on M855 ball ammunition, and that citizens had until March 16 to comment.
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Outside the conservative media, coverage of the panic came in two flavors. The first: Color stories about people snapping up ammo. The second: Eye-rolling about the Republicans telling people to fight the ATF rule. The Daily Beast, for example, used a PAC message about the rule from Kentucky Senator Rand Paul as a case study in how he seized on conservative panics to build his e-mail list.
This wasn't wrong, exactly. Paul's the-gun-grabbers-are-coming message asked conservatives to "chip in" and sign a petition, after sharing some reasons to be worried. "Like 'Operation Choke Point'—which targets firearms and ammunition dealers with harassment because the Administration finds them 'objectionable'—the BATF's ammo ban is a backdoor route to imposing President Obama's gun control," wrote Paul.
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Indeed, and they were only getting stronger. On May 9, the day before the surrender, Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley marshaled all but one of his Republican colleagues for a statement against the rule. (Only Illinois's Mark Kirk sat it out.)
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Paul's operation, which had been so recently mocked for lobbying against the rule, was just as happy. "It is why you mobilize people," said Doug Stafford, a spokesman for Paul. "People taking action absolutely can have an impact, as this clearly showed. Gun owners and second amendment advocates have won two major battles, one in Congress and now in the administration, through their advocacy."
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http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2015-03-11/how-chuck-grassley-rand-paul-and-80-000-other-americans-clobbered-an-ammo-banThis must really burn the owner of this media outlet since being the former Mayor of NYC, has been using lots of his billionare money to lobby for gun control all over the country. Sure hope Rand keeps sopping up all the gun owner support going into the next primary election in the GOP.
