The National Rifle Association is warning that the administration's plan to ban one type of AR-15 ammo is just the first step in taking away all hunting rounds, a backdoor bid to impose national gun control.

"He can ban their guns so he's going to ban their ammo," said Wayne LaPierre, executive vice president of the NRA, the nation's largest organization promoting the Second Amendment.

AP Photo

His warning was the latest chapter on a new bid by the administration to ban the popular 5.56 M855 "green tip" ammunition used by AR-15 rifle.

Last month the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives moved to classify the round as "armor piercing" and then ban it, claiming it is a threat to police as more people buy AR-15 style pistols. AR type rifles are among the nation's most popular.

Without getting into the issue that the round currently isn't made of metals considered in legislation as armor piercing, LaPierre told Fox's Lou Dobbs that if the administration succeeds in banning the small 5.56 ammo because it can pierce body armor, then it will likely come after even bigger rounds.

Showing a chart on Dobbs' show of cartridges small to large, LaPierre said, "If he can ban that, because it pierces soft body armor, he can also ban the .30-06, a really popular hunting cartridge, he can ban the other two hunting cartridges there, the .300 Win Mag, the .375. He can ban every cartridge in between. That in fact under this standard he can ban all rifle cartridges because all of them pierce soft body armor."

Rifle ammo has been exempted from the ban because it isn't typically used in crime. Police agree and say the ban isn't needed.

While the NRA is one of the nation's most powerful lobbying groups, LaPierre warned that the administration could get away with the ban.

"I think he's going to proceed," he said. Referring to the rest of the president's term, he added, "The next 700 days are the most dangerous days in the history of the Second Amendment."

Paul Bedard, the Washington Examiner's "Washington Secrets" columnist, can be contacted at pbedard@washingtonexaminer.com.