Sadly yeah, it's one in a massive list of stupid laws but FOPA states anything that "may be used in a handgun" if I'm remembering the wording right. I believe they submitted the duty round for the NATO RFP tho and that's steel penetrator. If i remember right blacktip .223 is similarly banned because of AR pistols, you can basically only get AP in full rifle rounds (.30-06) or something like .50 BMG.