Hold your fire
By Libby
Here's another little way the Bush doctrine is endangering our safety at home. Our local police are running out of ammo
So they can't train the new recruits in firearm proficiency and it's costing the taxpayer additional local funds to keep their police departments in bullets.
I guess that's one way to ensure that a potential declaration of martial law wouldn't meet any resistance from local law enforcement officers who might still believe in civil liberties. Rather convenient way to disarm the people as well, without the bother of confiscating the firearms. I have to think that individual gun owners are also feeling the same pinch and would likely keep less ammo on hand. Wouldn't be much chance of an armed uprising without bullets.
Just saying.
Here's another little way the Bush doctrine is endangering our safety at home. Our local police are running out of ammo
Troops training for and fighting the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are firing more than 1 billion bullets a year, contributing to ammunition shortages hitting police departments nationwide and preventing some officers from training with the weapons they carry on patrol.
An Associated Press review of dozens of police and sheriff's departments found that many are struggling with delays of as long as a year for both handgun and rifle ammunition. And the shortages are resulting in prices as much as double what departments were paying just a year ago.
So they can't train the new recruits in firearm proficiency and it's costing the taxpayer additional local funds to keep their police departments in bullets.
I guess that's one way to ensure that a potential declaration of martial law wouldn't meet any resistance from local law enforcement officers who might still believe in civil liberties. Rather convenient way to disarm the people as well, without the bother of confiscating the firearms. I have to think that individual gun owners are also feeling the same pinch and would likely keep less ammo on hand. Wouldn't be much chance of an armed uprising without bullets.
Just saying.
Labels: national security, police state, Second Amendment
posted by Libby Spencer at 6:39 PM
8 Comments:
We're in an ammo shortage, eh?
It is true, of course, but it has little to nothing to do with President Bush or our wars.
The simple fact of the matter is that the ammunition used by the police and the ammunition used by the military are entirely different animals, built to different specifications, and for that matter, built in entirely different manufacturing plants.
Police departments are running low on ammunition not because we're experiencing manufacturing shortfalls or because the military is using the ammunition, but because they have expanded their arsenals and are shooting far more.
Once upon a time, police agencies had 6-shot revolvers and a few 12-gauge shotguns, and that was about it. They qualified perhaps once or twice a year, firing dozens of rounds at paper targets on a static range.
Today, many police officers carry high-capacity semi-automatic pistols, and either assault rifles or patrol carbines in their squad cars. They practice firing hundreds of rounds at a time per weapon, on fully-involved scenario-based ranges, several times a year.
Combine the fact that police agencies are often doubling their ammo usage over the past six years with the explosive growth of shooting sports among civilians (Trap and Skeet shooting is replacing golf as the sport of the monied in many parts of the country; three-gun competitions, cowboy action shooting, and IDPA shooting have all seen their numbers double or triple in the past five years) and it is rather obvious that the ammo shortage has very little at all to do with the war in Iraq or Afghanistan, and has far more to do with the massive increase in civilian and police ammunition requirements.
Good point on increased LEO and civilian use anon but I don't think you can discount the military usage altogether. As the linked article pointed out, the specs are different but the machinery used is the same and one assumes the raw materials are as well, so you would have to factor in that availability.
Also, the article quoted a manufacturer as saying they hadn't increased capacity in reponse to demand because they considered an anomaly at first, so there is actually a manufacturing shortfall.
I certainly wouldn't attribute the shortage entirely to the wars but it only makes sense that it would be a factor.
You bet it's a factor, Libby, and apologists for Sockpuppet's little adventures would rather you not know it.
I half thought a while back that the PTB would go after ammo as a back door gun ban and fortunately stocked up while prices were reasonable. It could be that now, as is the case for whatever the criminal cabal does, the ammunition shortage is just another overlapping side benefit to their monstrous agenda.
Monstrous agenda is right Nolo. They're so relentless that I'm suspicious of everything they do.
The truth of the matter is that 9mm handgun ammo for military, police, or civilian use is identical. It would indeed be manufactured in the same plants.
The government bought every available round of ammo to supply the Iraqi and Afghan security forces and police.
Most of these weapons and ammo have been lost through sloppy administration and outright corruption. The middle east is awash in weapons and ammo stolen from the U.S. provisional authority. This is a disgrace and all the excuse makers on the right can't make it right.
You got that right Jim. It's a travesty.
I hesitate to put this here since correcting the record and getting the facts right are seen as "apologist" and "excuse makers", but here's here's the reality.
You may carry on with your manufactured outrage.
It's a well known fact that the military has their own plants such as Lake City AAP in Missouri, and do not depend on domestic production. There has been a huge increase in swat type para-military police units being formed, that are straining the already struggling civilian market.
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