Every Republican state attorney general lined up together in a letter to President Biden and White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention director Stefanie Feldman demanding an end to Democrat attempts to end Lake City Army Ammunition Plant’s (Lake City) commercial ammo sales.
The GOP AGs action comes in response to a January 9, 2024, missive from Democrat state attorneys general seeking an end to Lake City’s commercial ammo sales.
The Democrat AGs sought to justify their request by claiming Lake City ammo was tied to a number of mass shootings.
The 28 GOP AGs countered their Democrat colleagues, writing:
[The Democrat] attorneys general wrote to you casting aspersions and requesting an investigation of Lake City because they allege that the plant’s commercial ammunition was used in mass shootings. Perhaps those States should focus more on prosecuting crime to stop mass shootings—rather than trying to stop lawful Americans’ use of guns and ammunition. Their tactic is an overt attempt to punish Americans’ exercise of their Second Amendment rights.
Moreover, the GOP AGs explained that cutting off part of the commercially available ammo supply will only punish the law-abiding gun owner:
The United States Supreme Court stated definitively that the Second Amendment guarantees a personal right to each law-abiding citizen to
“keep and bear arms.” But Americans cannot exercise this constitutionally protected right to use their firearms without access to ammunition. If your office does what the Democrat attorneys general ask, then ammunition prices will increase, and ammunition availability will decrease. And those restrictions on ammunition will not resolve any of the ills discussed by our colleagues.
In seeking to end Lake City commercial ammo sales, Democrat AGs suggested the ammo being purchased commercially is actually ammunition manufactured for the military to use.
The GOP AGs countered:
[The Democrats] allege that ammunition manufactured for “military use” does not belong in our communities. First, the ammunition manufactured at Lake City and sold into the commercial market is not the primary rifle cartridge used by the United States military. The primary cartridge is proprietary to the Army and may not be sold commercially. Second, while the United States military purchases and uses a particular type of ammunition, that is not determinative as to whether it is “military ammunition” that should be banned for public use. If the United States military using ammunition precluded that ammunition’s use by civilians, then other widely and commonly available ammunition, including 9mm and 12-gauge shotshells, would also be prohibited for public use.
This is not the first time Democrats have sought to curtail ammo sales from Lake City. On February 15, 2015, Breitbart News reported the Obama ATF was pursuing a ban on the popular M855 AR-15 round, and they sought to justify the ban by re-categorizing the round as “armor piercing.”
At the time of Breitbart News’ report, the Obama ATF had launched a 30-day window in which it was taking public comment on the pending ban. On March 10, 2015, Reuters reported the Obama administration ditched the ban after public outcry.
The 28 GOP AGs fighting the Democrats’ current effort to curtail Lake City ammo sales referenced the attempted 2015 ban, noting that it too would have targeted the Lake City plant. However, “massive outrage” stopped the “ATF’s misguided attempt,” according to the AGs, saving the day.
AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio, a Turning Point USA Ambassador, and a Sightmark rifle optical pro-staffer. He was a Visiting Fellow at the Russell Kirk Center for Cultural Renewal in 2010, a speaker at the 2023 Western Conservative Summit, and he holds a Ph.D. in Military History, with a focus on the Vietnam War (brown water navy), U.S. Navy since Inception, the Civil War, and Early Modern Europe. Follow him on Instagram: @awr_hawkins. You can sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange. Reach him directly at
