1.This Act may be cited as the
Protect Law Enforcement Armor
Act
or the PLEA
Act
.
2.
(a)Congress finds the following:
(1)Law enforcement is
facing a threat from handguns and accompanying ammunition, which are designed
to penetrate police body armor, being marketed and sold to civilians.
(2)A
Five-seveN Pistol and accompanying ammunition, manufactured by FN Herstal of
Belgium as the 5.7 x 28 mm System
, has recently been recovered
by law enforcement on the streets. The Five-seveN Pistol is legally available
for purchase by civilians under current law.
(3)The Five-seveN
Pistol is capable of penetrating level IIA armor. The manufacturer advertises
that ammunition fired from the Five-seveN will perforate 48 layers of Kevlar up
to 200 meters and that the ammunition travels at 2,100 feet per second.
(4)The Five-seveN
Pistol, and similar handguns designed to use ammunition capable of penetrating
body armor, pose a devastating threat to law enforcement.
(b)The
purpose of this Act is to protect the Nation’s law enforcement officers
by—
(1)testing handguns
and ammunition for capability to penetrate body armor; and
(2)prohibiting the
manufacture, importation, sale, or purchase by civilians of the Five-seveN
Pistol, ammunition for such pistol, or any other handgun that uses ammunition
found to be capable of penetrating body armor.
3.Armor piercing
ammunition
(a)Expansion of
definition of armor piercing ammunitionSection 921(a)(17)(B) of title 18, United
States Code, is amended—
(1)in clause (i), by
striking or
at the end;
(2)in clause (ii), by
striking the period at the end and inserting ; and
; and
(3)by adding at the
end the following:
(iii)a projectile that—
(I)may be used in a handgun; and
(II)the Attorney General determines,
pursuant to section 926(d), to be capable of penetrating body
armor.
.
(b)Determination of
capability of projectiles To penetrate body armorSection 926 of
title 18, United States Code, is amended by adding at the end the
following:
(d)(1)Not later than 1 year
after the date of enactment of this subsection, the Attorney General shall
promulgate standards for the uniform testing of projectiles against Body Armor
Exemplar.
(2)The standards promulgated pursuant to
paragraph (1) shall take into account, among other factors, variations in
performance that are related to the type of handgun used, the length of the
barrel of the handgun, the amount and kind of powder used to propel the
projectile, and the design of the projectile.
(3)As used in paragraph (1), the term
Body Armor Exemplar means body armor that the Attorney General
determines meets minimum standards for the protection of law enforcement
officers.
.
4.Armor piercing
handguns and ammunition
(a)Section 922 of title
18, United States Code, is amended by adding at the end the following:
(aa)
(1)It shall be unlawful for any person to manufacture,
import, market, sell, ship, deliver, possess, transfer, or receive—
(A)the Fabrique
Nationale Herstal Five-seveN Pistol;
(B)5.7 x 28mm SS190,
SS192, SS195LF, SS196, or SS197 cartridges; or
(C)any other handgun
that uses armor piercing ammunition.
(2)This
subsection shall not apply to—
(A)any firearm or
armor piercing ammunition manufactured for, and sold exclusively to, military,
law enforcement, or intelligence agencies of the United States; and
(B)the manufacture,
possession, transfer, receipt, shipment, or delivery of a firearm or armor
piercing ammunition by a licensed manufacturer, or any person acting pursuant
to a contract with a licensed manufacturer, for the purpose of examining and
testing such firearm or ammunition to determine whether paragraph (1) applies
to such
firearm.
.
(b)Section
924(a)(1)(B) of title 18, United States Code, is amended by striking or
(q)
and inserting (q), or (aa)
.