2018 Elections update.

And I agree re the ill-conceived militarization of the police. Remember when they carried .38 revolvers and had a 12 gauge shotgun in the patrol car? Sure, I'd go back to those days. How do we get there?

It began as just another gorgeous L.A. day. Then, shortly after 9 a.m., a spectral scene of combat popped onto TV screens across the city.

Two armor-clad figures standing calmly outside a bank were spewing machine gun fire at a swarm of police officers shooting back with pistols from behind car doors and trees.

Within minutes, the parking lot outside the Bank of America on Laurel Canyon Boulevard in North Hollywood was on television screens across the country, as disbelieving viewers watched the battle unfold on live feeds from network helicopters circling overhead.

For 44 minutes, out-gunned officers engaged the bank robbers, dodging barrages of high-powered bullets, rescuing their wounded and peppering their targets with hundreds of shots that bounced off harmlessly.

Gradually their shots probed openings in their adversaries’ armor as a SWAT team arrived from afar to equalize the firepower. The North Hollywood shootout ended with the two perpetrators — Larry Eugene Phillips Jr., 26, and Emil Dechebal Matasareanu, 30 — dead in the street. Eleven officers were wounded, but none killed.

US agency drops efforts to ban armor-piercing bullets
11 March 2015
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-31827249

Bullets that are able to pierce police officers' protective vests will remain legal in the US after a proposed ban met with a fierce opposition from gun rights activists.

The Obama administration sought to ban certain types of ammunition used in the popular AR-15-style rifles.

Many armor-piercing bullets used in handguns are illegal under the Law Enforcement Officers Protection Act.

But rifle bullets have long been exempt.

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) argued that high-powered, pistol-like rifles didn't exist when the law was enacted in 1986 and therefore some rifle bullets also should banned as well.

The rule change would have affected only "M855 green tip" or "SS109" rounds with certain types of metal core projectiles.

More than 50 US senators wrote to the ATF protesting against the proposed ban.

"If law-abiding gun owners cannot obtain rifle ammunition, or face substantial difficulty in finding ammunition available and at reasonable prices because government entities are banning such ammunition, then the Second Amendment is at risk," the senators said in the letter.

On Tuesday, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, a Virginia Republican, said he was "pleased that the Obama administration has abandoned its attack on the Second Amendment",