WHEREAS, the protection of law enforcement officers is essential if we are to continue to have a highly qualified crime prevention force; and

WHEREAS, the law enforcement community is increasingly dependent on ballistic vests for protection against handgun bullets; and

WHEREAS, law enforcement officers are seriously threatened by the use of certain handgun bullets that are too often available to the public and capable of penetrating ballistic vests; and

WHEREAS, the law enforcement community has expressed deep concern about such risk; and

WHEREAS, since 2015 through May 31, 2019, there have been 223 law enforcement officers killed by gunfire in the United States; and

WHEREAS, existing law, such as the law passed in 1986 by the U.S. Congress provides for a prohibition on the manufacture or importation of armor-piercing ammunition based on the specific materials from which it is made, to wit: “a projectile or projectile core which may be used in a handgun and which is construed entirely from one or a combination of tungsten alloys, steel, iron, brass, bronze, beryllium copper, or depleted uranium”; and

WHEREAS, the United States Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 expanded the definition of armor-piercing ammunition to include “a full jacketed projectile larger than .22 caliber designed and intended for use in a handgun and whose jacket has a weight of more than 25% of the total weight of the projectile; and

WHEREAS, there are too often no restrictions on ammunition that may be manufactured from any other material, and which can pierce ballistic vests; and

WHEREAS, recently certain private manufacturers, start-ups and non-profits have indicated their intentions to design handgun ammunition specifically capable of penetrating ballistic vests; and

WHEREAS, such ammunition, already being manufactured and planned for manufacture, would logically be intended only to murder law enforcement officers without any other justified usage; and

WHEREAS, “performance-based” standards, which evaluate ammunition’s actual ability to penetrate body armor, make more sense in helping to decide which ammunition ought to be outlawed than do standards based on what the projectile is made of. Now, therefore, be it

RESOLVED, the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) calls upon legislators to enact laws specific to the prohibition of manufacturing, use, and possession of ballistic body armor-piercing ammunition by and for anyone other than law enforcement officers and agencies; and to fund the development of the performance-based standards needed for their efficient and effective enforcement; and be it

FURTHER RESOLVED, the IACP has gone on record1 as condemning such ammunition and urges law- making bodies to set aside any partisan considerations in enacting legislation that includes performance- based standards on actual ballistic vest penetration to ban ammunition which is specifically designed, intended, or built with the ability to penetrate ballistic vests.

Submitted by: Patrol & Tactical Operations Committee and Firearms Committee

PTO.18.19

1 “Reduce and Prevent Firearms Violence,” in IACP Policy Priorities 2019-2021, https://www.theiacp.org/sites/default/files/IACP%20Policy%20Priorities_2019-2021.pdf.