Billions and Billions of Bullets

.223 Ammunition

Item, The Campaign Trail, 2008:  While campaigning, Barack Obama said:

We cannot continue to rely only on our military in order to achieve the national security objectives we’ve set. We’ve got to have a civilian national security force that’s just as powerful, just as strong, just as well funded.

Item, February, 2009:  A document from the Missouri Information Analysis Center, an intelligence arm of the state in partnership with local, federal and state law enforcement agencies, reveals that these agencies, in large part inspired by the Department of Homeland Security under DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano, claimed that citizens interested in Constitutional issues might be terrorists.

Item, April 17, 2009: The Wall Street Journal publishes an article about FBI investigations into returning military veterans supposed involvement in “extremist” groups.

Item, April 16, 2009:  The Washington Times reports that DHS Secretary stood by a DHS assessment of returning veterans as potential domestic terrorists.

Item, August, 2012:  Thinkprogress.org quotes House Speaker John Boehner responding to the Obama Administration’s refusal to identify Islamist killers as terrorists while apply the same label to conservative Americans:

“T]he Secretary of Homeland Security owes the American people an explanation for why she has abandoned using the term ‘terrorist’ to describe those, such as al Qaeda, who are plotting overseas to kill innocent Americans, while her own Department is using the same term to describe American citizens who disagree with the direction Washington Democrats are taking our nation. Everyone agrees that the Department should be focused on protecting America, but using such broad-based generalizations about the American people is simply outrageous.

Item, July, 2012:  The Blaze reports on a study produced by the University of Maryland, funded in part by DHS:

Are you ‘reverent of individual liberty?’ Are you ‘suspicious of centralized federal authority?’ Do you think there is a ‘grave threat to national sovereignty and/or personal liberty?’

Well, then you fall into the category of ‘extreme right-wing’ terrorist…

Other dangerous people identified were those associated with “gun rights” and “tax protest.”

Included in the report was a recent FBI “Communities Against Terrorism” program that classified as potential terrorist activity the bulk purchase of food or paying at a coffee shop with cash.

Item, January 2013: The Examinar.com reports:  

…the Department of Homeland Security is seeking to purchase 7,000 fully automatic rifles, which the Department is referring to as ‘personal defense weapons.’

The solicitation for the weapons reads: ‘The scope of this contract is to provide a total of up to 7,000 5.56x45mm North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) personal defense weapons (PDW) throughout the life of this contract to numerous Department of Homeland Security components.’

The solicitation continues that the guns should be select fire, so that they fire both semi-automatic and full auto (the true definition of an ‘assault rifle’). The rifles will also take so-called high capacity magazines, ‘capable of accepting all standard NATO STANAG 20 and 30 round M16 magazines (NSN 1005-00-921-5004) and Magpul 30 round PMAG (NSN 1005-01-576-5159). The magazine shall have a capacity to hold thirty (30) 5.56x45mm NATO rounds.’

This large order of firearms would seem to fit with the nearly 2 billion rounds of hollow point ammunition that the DHS has ordered, which includes .223 caliber rounds, the civilian equivalent of the 5.56x45mm NATO round.

The article notes that the DHS and the media have cooperated to obfuscate the true reasons for the purchases of weapons and ammunition, illegally redacting information on a solicitation, and claiming the .223 rounds are for training.  Full metal jacketed rounds are purchased for training as they are cheaper.  Hollow point rounds are not used for training.  In addition, the DHS is purchasing actual combat arms, true fully automatic assault rifles that fire the same cartridge as the M-16 and M-4 rifles of our troops.  A “personal defense weapon” is also commonly a fully automatic weapon, but much smaller and more compact than an M-4, and firing pistol caliber ammunition, or ammunition smaller than the NATO standard 5.56mm round, like the HK MP7 in 4.6 X 30mm.

Heckler Koch MP7 PDW

Fast forward to February 8, 2013 and an article by Andrew Malcolm at Investors.com: 

In a puzzling, unexplained development, the Obama administration has been buying and storing vast amounts of ammunition in recent months, with the Department of Homeland Security just placing another order for an additional 21.6 million rounds.

Several other agencies of the federal government also began buying large quantities of bullets last year. The Social Security Administration, for instance, not normally considered on the frontlines of anything but dealing with seniors, explained that its purchase of millions of rounds was for special agents’ required quarterly weapons qualifications. They must be pretty poor shots.

Indeed.  Malcom continues:

According to one estimate, just since last spring DHS has stockpiled more than 1.6 billion bullets, mainly .40 caliber and 9mm. That’s sufficient firepower to shoot every American about five times. Including illegal immigrants.

To provide some perspective, experts estimate that at the peak of the Iraq war American troops were firing around 5.5 million rounds per month. At that rate, DHS is armed now for a 24-year Iraq war.

And on February 7, 2013, The Examiner reported:  

Over the last year, the Department of Homeland Security has purchased 1.6 billion rounds of hollow point ammunition for unknown reasons. A new solicitation has appeared from the DHS requesting even more rounds. Posted on Fed Biz Ops on Wednesday, the solicitation requests 10 million .40 caliber 165 grain jacketed hollow point rounds, 10 million 9mm 115 grain jacketed hollow point rounds and 1.6 million 9mm pistol cartridge ball rounds. This comes to a total of 21.6 million bullets.

Just what is going on here?  There is no doubt that the various federal law enforcement agencies need training ammunition on a regular basis, but never before have such truly staggering quantities of ammunition been purchased by so many federal agencies more or less simultaneously.  And let’s keep in mind that “combat” or duty ammunition has hollow point bullets and training ammunition, which is much less expensive, has fully metal jacketed bullets, commonly known or “ball” or “hardball” ammunition.

The sheer number of federal employees carrying weapons and invested with arrest powers is stunning, and during the Obama era of ever-increasing federal payrolls, always increasing.  Even the Department of Education(?!) has a SWAT team (take the link to experience governmental spinning as the DOE tries to deny it exists), and the Social Security Administration admits to nearly 300 armed agents.  And the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, a part of the Department of Commerce, is also buying ammunition, for what purpose…well, that’s a bit hard to imagine, though its mission statement would not seem to suggest the need for firearms or enforcement agents of any stripe.

There are, no doubt, several possible explanations.  One of the most likely is the Chicago way, also known as lining the pockets of Democrat supporters and cronies with taxpayer money.  The Senseofevents blog writes about what may be just such a scam:

On Jan. 2, DHS awarded a contract to…Evian Group Inc., an organization that was formed just five days before the announcement of the solicitation [in December].

As James Smith documents, Evian Group seems to be little more than a front organization and doesn’t appear to have any real business assets, a genuine physical address, a website, or even a phone number.

Senseofevents suggests that Evian Group would almost certainly be buying ammunition at a discount from manufacturers and selling it at a considerable markup to the government.  If so–and why else would a middleman be involved–this is obviously a scam.  There is no reason government cannot buy directly from manufacturers at a substantial discount.  Local, state and federal agencies do it all the time.  Evian Group lists a Las Vegas address that is apparently a non-functional front.  As regular readers know, Law Vegas and the politics practiced there and in the state of Nevada are the veritable definition of corruption.  Is it a coincidence this company is headquartered–so to speak–there?  Someone is probably making money on this, and it is not the taxpayers.

Another likely explanation is war gaming.  One need not spin conspiracy theories to make this proposition.  Governmental agencies do it all the time, and if done for the right reasons, it is not only necessary, but entirely rational.  In fact, we want our government to be prepared.

But let’s consider not a rational government ruled by the rule of law and determined to protect Americans from real potential threats, but an administration that sees conservatives and independents as not only evil, but dangerous.  This is an administration that not only does not see murderous Islamists as a threat, but actually hires them for high governmental positions and relies on them as advisors in law enforcement and intelligence circles.  This is an administration that sees veterans, gun owners, those who love freedom and support the Constitution, those who oppose big government, prefer low taxes, and prefer Federalism and self-sufficiency as dangerously threatening.

Despite Mr. Obama’s--and various lesser ranking fools like Nancy Pelosi–refusal to admit that America is in desperate financial straits, one can be certain that there are those in government who know better and who are planning for an economic collapse and the social chaos that would inevitably ensue.  Such people would surely quickly discover that a substantial portion of the armed forces–being an all-volunteer force dedicated to the Constitution and not a political party or a cult of personality politician–would be very unlikely to support a corrupt federal government against the American people.  Some will, but most, I suspect will not, and will defect to the opposition with their weapons, supplies and substantial intelligence.

However, there are thousands, likely tens of thousands of federal employees who are political hacks, who owe their allegiance to the Democrat party and who are all about the warped aura surrounding our first cult of personality president.  These are people who, already utterly dependent upon the Federal government, many of them true believers, would follow a tyrannical leadership against the American people.  Add the various hangers on of the Democrat Party, and the numbers become impressive.  After all, if they win, their security and social dominance will be established and they’ll live as virtual god-kings in the ruins of America or in whatever fundamentally transformed utopia remains.  On the other hand, if the federal government is toppled and the rule of law reestablished, those who take arms against the innocent will not fare well.  They certainly understand this dynamic and are planning for it.  Their planning and supplies are, of course, being financed by the very taxpayers they fear and loath.

Even if this admittedly pessimistic scenario is off the mark, consider that the political elite and those that depend upon and serve them are nothing of not into maintaining their power and perks.  In desperate economic times, they know the commoners will not be thinking well of them.  The God and gun clingers are unable to appreciate those who know better than they their needs, you know.

Why is the government buying huge quantities of ammunition, quantities far greater than those necessary to prosecute a two-decade war?  At what enemy will those rounds be directed?

Remember:

Mr. Obama wants an internal security force as powerful and well equipped as the Pentagon.

The government doesn’t consider Islamists much of a threat.

The government considers those who love liberty an enormous threat.

The government is working to disarm the law abiding.

Even Democrats are publicly admitting that ObamaCare is a financial disaster.

The national debt increases by more than a trillion dollars a year and our President won’t admit we have a spending problem.

Hmmm.  I wonder…

UPDATE, 02-18-13, 1720 CST:  Donald Sensing provides an interesting update to the numbers of rounds DHS is apparently currently buying.  And no, I don’t feel any better about things.  Worth a look.