NCJ Number
156792
Journal
Law Enforcement Quarterly Dated: (August-October 1995) Pages: 5-6,36-37
Date Published
1995
Length
4 pages
Annotation
This article outlines the types of ammunition that are illegal, types of related offenses, and police policies and procedures for enforcing ammunition laws.
Abstract
Possession of "handgun ammunition" designed primarily to penetrate metal or armor is a felony; manufacturing, importing, selling, offering for sale, or transporting armor-piercing handgun ammunition is a felony; police officers who believe they have found some armor-piercing ammunition should take samples for testing and seek the assistance of a firearms expert before charging anyone with the illegal possession of the bullets. It is a felony to possess, manufacture, import, keep, offer, or expose for sale, give, or lend any bullet that contains or carries an explosive agent. When officers come in contact with ammunition that appears to qualify as an explosive bullet, it should be confiscated and the possessor released, pending an expert's analysis. Anyone who possesses, manufactures, imports, keeps, offers or exposes for sale, gives or lends to another any "flechette dart" has committed a felony; this is a dart capable of being fired from a firearm that measures approximately 1 inch in length, with tail fins that take up five-sixteenths of an inch of the body. The manufacturing, selling, offering for sale, possessing, or using any blowgun ammunition is a misdemeanor. Other laws that define illegal ammunition pertain to projectiles listed as "destructive devices," the possession of live ammunition by minors, the possession of fixed ammunition by inmates, and search and seizure that involves possible illegal ammunition.