This reminds me of the Black Talon (Cop Killer) bullets that were banned in the 80’s. The ATF’s position is fairly consistent with that.
Considering all the stunts the Zero’s minions have pulled the ATF seems to be a little more even handed. They couldn’t have picked a worse time to do this. They may have thought they could do this under the radar with the Net Neutrality and Immigration crap going on.
They didn’t ban them.
They just made such a stink Winchester pulled the cartridge and then re-introduced it later as the Lawman SXT or something, after they removed the black coating.