The Department of Homeland Security is set to purchase over 62 million rounds of ammo typically used in AR-15 semi-automatic rifles, just weeks after the ATF was forced to back down on a ban on M855 bullets.
A posting on FedBizOpps.gov this week reveals that the DHS is looking to contract with a company to provide 12.6 million rounds of .223 Remington ammunition per year for a period of five years – totaling 62.5 million bullets.
The solicitation explains that the purchase is intended, “to achieve price savings over the current .223 Rem duty ammunition.” The bullets will be used by U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents nationwide for “training” purposes.
The .223 Remington is one of the most common rifle cartridges in use in the United States and is used both in bolt action rifles and semi-automatic rifles such as the AR-15 and the Ruger Mini-14.
In 2013, following concerns about the DHS buying large quantities of several different types of ammunition, weapons manufacturers noted that the feds may have been attempting to control the ammunition market by forcing manufacturers to hold back stock from general sale.
“If they periodically do this in increments, they’re going to control how much ammo is available on the commercial market,” a weapons manufacturer told Michael Savage, adding that the contracts with bullet manufacturers stipulate that everything made goes to the government as the number one priority before it is allowed to enter the commercial market.
In March 2013, Californian Congressman Doug LaMalfa and 14 of his House peers wrote a letter to the Department of Homeland Security demanding to know why the federal agency was buying so many rounds of ammunition and whether the purchases were part of a deliberate attempt to restrict supply to the American people.
“The extraordinary level of ammunition purchases made by Homeland Security seems to have, in states such as my own, created an extreme shortage of ammunition to the point where many gun owners are unable to purchase any,” LaMalfa wrote in the letter.
The bulk purchase follows attempts by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms to ban M855 ammo, another popular round for AR-15’s used by hunters. The ATF justified the ban by claiming that the bullets were “armor piercing” and a threat to law enforcement officers.
After being on the receiving end of a huge backlash, the feds were forced to back down and ATF director B. Todd Jones subsequently tendered his resignation. Democratic Congressman Steve Israel called the ATF backdown “cowardly” and vowed to revive the ban.
The ATF’s threat to ban the ammo temporarily caused prices of the bullet to surge more than double in price.
Although federal agencies are increasingly hiding their purchases by limiting public information on fbo.gov, it can still be conservatively estimated from available data that the feds have purchased at least 2.11 billion rounds of ammunition since April 2012:Date Reported Agency Amount Caliber April ’12 – Feb ’13 Various 2,000,000,000 Various03/25/13 DHS 360,000 .40 S&W07/26/13 NOAA 72,000 .40 S&W07/26/13 Army 2,550,000 7.62x39mm07/26/13 Army 425,000 9x18mm Makarov08/19/13 TSA 3,454,000 .357 SIG02/11/14 DHS 141,000 .308 Remington04/22/14 DHS 25,000,000 12 Gauge05/22/14 TSA 24,000,000 .357 SIG04/15/15 DHS 62,000,000 .223 Remington
TOTAL 2,118,002,000
That’s enough ammo to kill around 30% of the world’s population.
Furthermore, U.S. soldiers were shooting around 5.5 million rounds of ammunition per month during the war in Iraq, or 66 million rounds annually. Using that figure, the feds have stockpiled enough ammo over the past two years to fight a 32-year war.
http://www.infowars.com/dhs-to-purchase-62-million-rounds-of-ar-15-ammo/
Bill would end race disclosure in gun sales
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) could no longer collect racial data for gun transactions under new legislation in the House.
Gun dealers are currently required to report information about the race and ethnicity of people who purchase firearms. The ATF has been collecting this information for several years, though the agency has maintained it never compiled it in any database.
But the Freedom From Intrusive Regulatory Enforcement of Arbitrary Registration Mandates (FIREARM) Act reintroduced late Monday by Reps. Diane Black (R-Tenn.) and Ted Poe (R-Texas) would strike down this controversial policy.
“Forcing citizens who are lawfully purchasing guns to disclose race and ethnicity with the threat of federal prosecution if they fail to disclose is completely unnecessary,” Poe said in a statement. "Bottom line, if a law-abiding citizen is lawfully purchasing firearms, race and ethnicity are irrelevant."
The ATF made changes to Form 4473 in 2012, according to the lawmakers, requiring gun dealers to submit information about the race and ethnicity of their customers.
Gun dealers that fail to comply with the new requirements could face penalties from the ATF, the lawmakers say.
Sen. Roy Blunt last fall criticized the controversial policy in a letter to then ATF Director Todd Jones and asked whether the information about a person's race has ever been used to block someone from purchasing a gun.
“The constitutional right of a citizen to own a firearm has nothing to do with race or ethnicity,” Blunt wrote at the time. “It is disconcerting that the U.S. government is gathering this type of data on citizens when there is no connection between purchasing a firearm and an individual’s race or ethnicity."
Black originally introduced the legislation in the last Congress but is now reintroducing it in a more gun-friendly Congress controlled by Republicans.
“Law-abiding citizens should never have to play 20 questions with Uncle Sam just to access their fundamental right to keep and bear arms,” Black said in a statement.
“As a gun owner myself, I know that this is not only a Second Amendment concern, but also a privacy concern,” she added. "The government has no legitimate reason to collect this information in the first place."
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