Naturally, those proposing this "armor piercing" ban would have outlawed ANY load that would penetrate a specified thickness of body armor, and therefore prohibit damn near every sporting rifle over .22 rimfire.

However, I do wonder where you got the idea that cvivilains had no access to AP loads. After WWII, there were just tons of U.S. Cal. .30 M2 ball ammo dumped on the surplus market that anyone could purchase, and at least half of this stuff was the "substitute" M2 ball round which was loaded with the black-tip AP bullets. ANYONE could buy it. Many did. It was actually a bit more accurate on average than the M2 stuff with 152-grain lead-core bullets.

I don't know how much of this ammo is still for sale in civilian trade channels, but I do know that some of my acquaintances had a lot of it in the past..... Now the way I read current Federal law concerning "armor-piercing" ammunition, what is prohibited arre bullets "designed for or intended to be fired from a HANGUN", not a rifle. So the M2 AP stuff is still legal at the federal level. But it is probably illegal in places like the severalPeoples Republics of North America(ie., CA, MA,NJ, etc.)