Brady Center calls for ban on popular hunting ammo

By Jeff Riley

In the wake of two mass shootings in Colorado, it is no surprise that the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence is calling for more gun control. They start by falsely claiming that the now expired 1994 "Assault Weapons" ban could have prevent both shootings. Not true, as both the weapons used in the shootings in Omaha and Colorado would not have been banned under the provisions of 1994 ban. The WASR AK-47 style gun used in the Nebraska shooting is a direct result of the ban, having been cosmetically altered to comply with the 1994 law. This is a typical reaction to such shootings and is to be expected.

What is of a greater concern to me and to ever big-game hunter in the county is the following statement post on the Brady Center website:

"Perhaps even more shocking, the type of bullet many assault weapons fire (7.62mm full metal jacket) can penetrate four categories of police body armor. There is no legitimate reason the public should have this kind of access to military-style assault weapons."

Not content to go after assault weapons, now they are going after any bullet that can penetrate body armor.

And as usual, they're trying to sway public opinion with inaccurate, misleading, and provably false information.

Click 'Read More' for the full commentary.
In his blog, Brady bunch leader Paul Helmke references a National Institute of Justice report on soft body armor protection, but incorrectly identifies the type of bullet used in the shooting. The report references the 7.62 NATO round (.308 Win) in the testing, but the round used in the Omaha shooting was a 7.62x39 Russian. He also neglected to inform his readers that the test he refers to is for soft body armor, which is designed to stop handgun rounds only. It was never intended to stop rifle rounds. This is a telling mistake, as the Brady Center doesn't care about providing accurate information - only hysterical information.

Almost every single popular round used for big-game in this country can penetrate the same four levels of soft body armor. Let's compare the 3 most popular cartridge choices for Whitetail Deer hunting: [1]

Cartridge Information

Velocity (ft/sec)

Energy (ft-lbs)

Now let's look at the 7.62x39 Russian:

Cartridge Information

Velocity (ft/sec)

Energy (ft-lbs)

As you can see the three most popular rounds for deer hunting all have a higher muzzle velocity/energy compared to the 7.62 Russian. Which means that all three can penetrate all but level III hard body armor, even the 30-30 Winchester whom most consider the minimum acceptable round for deer hunting is more powerful than the 7.62 used in the Omaha Mall shooting. What does this mean for the average deer/big game hunter? It means that despite years of protestations that "we aren't advocating banning guns/ammo used by hunters" they are finally showing their true goal is to ban the private ownership of all firearms in the United States. It might be helpful to remember the following:

The Brady Campaign's original name was Handgun Control Inc. The
founder, the late Pete Shields, made his goals clear in an interview in with the New Yorker Magazine in 1976:

We'll take one step at a time, and the first is necessarily -given the political realities - very modest. We'll have to start
working again to strengthen the law, and then again to strengthen the next law and again and again. Our ultimate goal, total control of hand-guns, is going to take time. The first problem is to slow down production and sales. Next is to get registration. The final problem is to make possession of all handguns and ammunition (with a few exceptions) totally illegal.

It seems that they have expanded their stated position of banning handguns to include assault weapons and now hunting firearms/ammunition. What you call a deer rifle, they refer to it as an intermediate sniper rifle, which they define as "any rifle with an optical sight making it capable of shooting at distances of 100 meters or greater". For those who thought anti-gunners were only after "assault rifles" now they want to ban your granddad's deer gun. Please join organizations like Buckeye Firearms Association and help spread the word about the latest attempt by the gun-grabbers to disarm law-abidingly gun owners whose only "crime" is to own firearms for hunting or self-defense.

[1] All ballistic information provided by Remington Arms online ballistic comparator (http://www.remington.com/products/ammunition/ballistics)