HR 538: Ban on the FN Five-seveN pistol

HarrySchell

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H.R. 538: To protect the Nation’s law enforcement officers by banning the Five-seveN Pistol and 5.7 x 28mm SS190, SS192, SS195LF, SS196, and SS197 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.

Introduced:Feb 06, 2013 (113th Congress, 2013–2015)
Sponsor:Rep. Eliot Engel [D-NY16][/B]

Probably won't go very far, but who knows?
 
I always thought that only certain, civilian non-legal loads of 5.7mm ammo were capable of penetrating level IIIA body armor?

This is a dangerous bill simply because it bans a firearm by name under the guise that its rounds in theory can go through a normal LEO's vest. what's next? AR Pistols shoot "armored piercing rounds" if the definition of AP is the ability to go through an officers vest.

I have not seen any tests on the subject but what about a 500 S&W MAG?
 
FNH personal protection firearms

Both the FNH five-seven pistol and the P90 carbine where designed with the intention to penetrate soft body armor. And they both do it very well with very little recoil.

can the 500SW penetrate IIIA soft armor. Yes it can, but with the amount of recoil you sure need to make it count. if you miss your recovery time is going to be high. With the FNH pistol and carbine with almost no recoil and a capacity of 30 and 50 rounds you have a very effective defensive duo.

what good is a high caliber if you cannot manage to get on target fast?
 
stingray2100 said:
can the 500SW penetrate IIIA soft armor. Yes it can, but with the amount of recoil you sure need to make it count. if you miss your recovery time is going to be high. With the FNH pistol and carbine with almost no recoil and a capacity of 30 and 50 rounds you have a very effective defensive duo.

Somehow, I doubt that any thinking even remotely along these lines is responsible for choosing one gun to ban over another.

It's more like "Revolvers aren't scary. People of olden times used them 100 years ago. That means they're weak and can't hurt people. This gun is black and scary and I found an internet article that says it shoots through 8 inches of depleted uranium.... we should ban it."
 
Already a ban on AP pistol ammo.

So, therefore the FN FiveseveN is nothing more than an overpriced .22 magnum mouse gun.

And it is on the chopping block, not that I think this bill will go anywhere. One of my Fraternity Brothers opined that the FiveseveN was the Glock of the 2000s. Instead of that invisible non-sense, we now have the "it goes through bullet proof vests" outcry.

Scary times.
 
From Wikipedia for that its worth

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FN_5.7×28mm#Controversy

In early 2005, the pistol was subject to intense controversy in the United States after the Brady Campaign stated that commercially available SS192 ammunition penetrated a Level IIA Kevlar vest in testing.[50][52] The National Rifle Association (NRA) shortly countered the Brady Campaign's claim by pointing out that the gun control group may not have adhered to standard testing procedures, and that FN only offers armor-piercing varieties of the 5.7×28mm cartridge to military and law enforcement customers.[15][52] Varieties offered to civilians are classified by the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) as not armor-piercing, and it was stated that the SS192 and SS196 cartridge variations were unable to penetrate various types of Kevlar vests in tests conducted by FNH USA.[24]

Also looks like the antis have been trying to push this bill every other year since 2004.
 
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.

This is the most worrisome part as many handguns can penetrate body armor depending on the caliber and the level of the body armor. For example, level IIA body armor is not rated against .357 Magnum ammunition and level II is only rated against .357 Magnum ammunition with JSP bullets. It is entirely possible that a .357 Magnum loaded with a non-expanding bullet like FMJ or LSWC might be able to penetrate level IIA or level II armor. Likewise, only level IIIA and up is rated for .44 Magnum and .357 Sig ammunition and only level III and up is rated for centerfire rifle cartridges (think AR and AK pistols and Thompson Center handguns).

The insidious thing about this is that it isn't specified which level of body armor will be tested against. For all we know, they could take an old flak jacket, which was never meant to protect against bullets, and ban any handgun that will shoot through it.
 
after reading the wiki info,,, it appears Engel & Co. is at it again..
it looks to have been introduced several times before..

keep throwing poo against the wall until it sticks..

This time however, the media and the anti's have the upper hand..
so it may just very well stick...
 
So if the protection level of an officers vest is used as the criteria to ban then whats to stop them from choosing a lower level of protection vest as the standard to increase the weapons they want eliminated? This is how they will try to succeed by using things like "officer safety" to further their goals. Alot of politicians are lawyers so they know how to manipulate verbage to achieve goals.
 
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after reading the wiki info,,, it appears Engel & Co. is at it again..
it looks to have been introduced several times before..

keep throwing poo against the wall until it sticks..

This time however, the media and the anti's have the upper hand..
so it may just very well stick...

The media will always have the upper hand so long as it is a single minded far far far left agenda driven machine. The antis do not have the upper hand though.

They tried like heck for an AWB 2.0 and when it became painfully obvious that idea was DOA before the bill was even published you started to hear more and more talk about universal background checks and a little bit about just banning high capacity magazines.

Barring another Sandy Hook like event an AWB is probably on the back burner until after the 2014 elections. However the anti gunners can't go away empty handed into election season so they will go for the low hanging fruit, universal background checks, "enhanced" background checks and maybe stuff like the above banning specific firearms like the FN 57.
 
Shosh....Don't talk about the 7.62X25...cheap ammo is getting harder to come by lately..:) I like my CZ52 it's fun to shoot.
 
When you inform some people that just about every rifle cartridge used for hunting and target shooting will penetrate soft body armor they look at you like you have something growing out of your forehead.

Next thing you know a remington 700 in .308 win. will be called an "armor piercing cop killer rifle."
 
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