[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 4 (Monday, January 9, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Page S618]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




         THE DECISION TO LICENSE THE MANUFACTURE OF RHINO AMMO

  Mr. MOYNIHAN. Mr. President, according to the Associated Press, the 
Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms has decided to issue a license 
for the manufacture of Rhino Ammo by the Signature Products Corp. of 
Huntsville, AL. Rhino Ammo, according to its manufacturer, is designed 
to fragment upon impact with human tissue in order to inflict maximum 
injury, Mr. David Keen, the chief executive of Signature Corp., has 
said of this ammunition:

       The beauty behind it is that it makes an incredible wound. 
     * * * That's not by accident. It's engineered by design. The 
     round disintegrates as it hits. There's no way to stop the 
     bleeding. * * * I don't care where it hits. They're going 
     down for good.

  The application for this license should be denied. There is something 
sick about a chief executive officer of an American corporation making 
such a statement to sell ammunition specifically designed to cause, in 
Mr. Keen's own words, ``horrific'' wounds.
  There is a history here. The St. Petersburg Declaration of 1868 was 
the first effort to ban certain types of ammunition which caused 
unnecessary suffering. The United States was not a party to the 
declaration, but we did ratify the Hague Conventions of 1899 and 1907, 
both of which banned the use of dum-dum bullets.
  Dum-dum bullets were invented in the late 19th century at the British 
arsenal in the town of Dum Dum, which was located 6 miles northeast of 
the Calcutta city center at the time. The rounds expand upon impact, 
thereby causing much larger wounds than ordinary bullets.
  The Hague Conference of 1899 met in May 1899. It was attended by 26 
nations and produced three conventions, the second of which was the 
``Convention with respect to the Laws and Customs of War on Land.'' The 
Conference also produced three declarations. Here is the text of the 
third declaration:

       III. On Expanding Bullets--The Contracting Parties agree to 
     abstain from the use of bullets which expand or flatten 
     easily in the human body, such as bullets with a hard 
     envelope which does not entirely cover the core, or is 
     pierced with incisions.

  It was ``especially prohibited'' by article 23(e) of the Hague 
Convention of 1899,

     To employ arms, projectiles, or material of a nature to cause 
     superfluous injury.

And it was ``especially forbidden'' article 23(e) of the Hague 
Convention of 1907,

     To employ arms, projectiles, or material calculated to cause 
     unnecessary suffering.

  The Treasury Department has apparently decided that Americans may arm 
themselves and use rounds of ammunition which would be forbidden by 
treaty--the supreme law of the land--to the U.S. Armed Forces. This 
borders on contempt of the law.
  It borders further on contempt of Congress. On Thursday, January 5, 
in the Washington Post I reported on efforts in the statutes and other 
means that Congress has adopted in recent years banning rounds of 
ammunition of particular threat to police officers. Any number of 
police officials have stated that once this round is manufactured and 
sold, it will end up being used against policemen. Evidently, this does 
not in any way trouble the Treasury Department.
  Clearly, there has to be a complete review in the executive branch of 
this issue. Just as clearly no license should be issued until that 
review has been made and submitted to Congress.

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