Just weeks after the Obama administration was forced to back off the ban on M855 bullets, a solicitation by DHS pops up on FedBizOpps.gov for a purchase of 62 million rounds of AR-15 ammo.
It couldn’t be more clear that the feds are once again seeking to raise prices and dry up the market for one of the most common rifle cartridges used in the US. DHS now has over 2 billion bullets, enough to kill 1/3 of the world’s population.
If you haven’t stocked up on ammo yet, the time is now.
“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 Various
03/25/13 DHS 360,000 .40 S&W
07/26/13 NOAA 72,000 .40 S&W
07/26/13 Army 2,550,000 7.62x39mm
07/26/13 Army 425,000 9x18mm Makarov
08/19/13 TSA 3,454,000 .357 SIG
02/11/14 DHS 141,000 .308 Remington
04/22/14 DHS 25,000,000 12 Gauge
05/22/14 TSA 24,000,000 .357 SIG
04/15/15 DHS 62,000,000 .223 RemingtonTOTAL 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.
62 million rounds is 62K rounds for 1000.DHS employees, most troupers have never fired that many rounds in 3 tours in the middle east!
Me too
tHEY ARE STORING THAT AMMO SOMEWHERE. whERE?
Can’t ban it, buy it.
What would have been better if the republicans didn’t create this m$#%&!@*ive expansion of government that’s not needed
They’ll just destroy them again.
One public person let it slip one time,and mentioned a location in New Mexico. The town was just outside the South boundary of a huge federal land area, where the Trinity Site is.
why ?
when Obama is gone It gets sold cheap
Makes you wonder what they are arming up for?