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.
I just may have to buy a couple of thousand more rounds. It’s a drop in the bucket to what the DHS is buying, but I will take someone with me if necessary.
We only need to have enough to survive the initial attack then its just a matter of checking bodies for supplies
It’s time for the ammo manufacturer to deny the purchase on the grounds they don’t have a need for that much ammo and that it is unfair to allow that large a purchase to just one en$#%&!@*y and harm the general public. If they try to force them to sell it to them then that should be a breach of federal commerce laws.
why are our gun makers complying??????????????
Guns are ok
They should have to go to the gun shop and buy them one box at a time like the ear of us!
…haha. yeah im a pawn, and youre and idiot thats been commenting on nonsense and waiting for martial law and gun restrictions for 6 plus years. Eat a bullet stupid.
They few billion rounds weren’t enough
why, so they can destroy them or is it to give to isis
so there not on the market for you and i to buy and to spend the tax payers money to get them to shoot you with and to drive the price way up so you wont buy them