5.56 NATO ammunition ammo
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By Lee Williams 

The actual shot-callers behind the Biden-Harris administration’s war on guns and the Second Amendment have certainly been creative in the steps they’ve taken toward achieving their goal of total civilian disarmament. 

These unelected bureaucrats have targeted “weapons of war” as they like to call them, which prompted several weak-kneed retailers to strip the country’s most popular rifles from their shelves. Through their toadies at ATF, Team Biden has targeted homemade firearm kits, after-market triggers, pistol braces and more.

They have lobbied banks and credit card firms to shut off access to credit and capital, and they have threatened shippers who move firearms, ammunition and accessories across state lines. Of course, no one has paid a higher price in the administration’s war than law-abiding gun dealers, who face the loss of their livelihood for even the most minor of clerical errors. 

None of these moves happened in a vacuum. All of them relied upon the media to garner public support. 

Now, it appears that ammunition manufacturers have been targeted for termination. Evidently, it’s their turn, so the Biden-Harris administration turned to their friends in the legacy media to lead the charge, and there are no more loyal sycophants than the über-woke, anti-gun reporters at The New York Times. 

An A-1 story published Sunday, titled “Army Ammunition Plant Is Tied to Mass Shootings Across the U.S.,” chronicles the newspaper’s “investigation” of the Lake City Army Ammunition Plant, which is located in Independence, Missouri. Built during World War II, Lake City is overseen by the Army’s Joint Munitions Command and has been operated by Olin Winchester since 2020. 

Everything you need to know about the newspaper’s “investigation” is summed up in the story’s secondary headline: “In recent years, the factory has also pumped billions of rounds of military-grade ammunition into the commercial market, an investigation by The New York Times found, leaving the ‘LC’ signature scattered across crime scenes, including the sites of some of the nation’s most heinous mass shootings.”

In other words, mass shootings aren’t just the fault of the mass shooter. In NYT-world, the ammunition manufacturer somehow bears responsibility as well.

Lake City Ammunition Plant
Lake City Ammunition Plant (courtesy US Army)

Journalistically, the story is utterly devoid of balance. Of its 106 paragraphs, only one sentence actually tells the actual truth and offsets the flawed narrative its authors seek to drive home in the remaining 105 paragraphs: 

“The vast majority of Lake City rounds sold by retailers have gone to law-abiding citizens, from hunters and farmers to target shooters,” the story states. 

The authors never bother to mention the millions of American troops who have used Lake City ammunition to defend their own lives, the lives of their teammates and the nation. They leave out the law enforcement officers who are alive today because of Lake City’s dependable products, and they never once mention the millions of law-abiding American gun owners who rely upon Lake City to defend themselves and their families. 

Instead, the authors list more than a dozen mass shootings, in which brass head-stamped at Lake City was allegedly recovered: Parkland, Aurora, the Tree of Life Synagogue, Uvalde, Buffalo and more. The authors even imply that Lake City made the rounds used in Lewiston, Maine, where the shooter allegedly used a .308 caliber rifle. “The authorities in Lewiston, Maine, declined to release ballistic information about the mass shooting there last month that resulted in 18 deaths,” the story states. 

Sourcing concerns 

Chris Hixon was the athletic director at Marjory Stoneman Douglas high school until he was shot and killed during the 2018 mass murder while trying valiantly to disarm the shooter. The authors interviewed his son, Tom Hixon, who serves on Michael Bloomberg’s Everytown for Gun Safety advisory board. 

Hixon wasn’t aware Lake City made the ammunition used during the shooting, and according to the story, he didn’t think it really mattered. 

“Mr. Hixon did not blame the government or the Army for his father’s death, he said in an interview. If the gunman hadn’t bought Lake City rounds, he would have bought ammunition made elsewhere,” the story states. 

In other words, not even a hand-picked anti-gun activist supports the narrative that The New York Times is trying to cram down its readers’ throats. 

New York Times
(AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)

There are other issues with the story. 

According to four “unnamed sources,” who the Times claims were “were not authorized to speak publicly,” Lake City managers were concerned their rounds would be found at “high-profile” crime scenes, and one of the four anonymous sources said their managers were “terrified” that journalists would make a connection to the plant. 

That four Lake City employees would risk their jobs and their families’ future by talking off-the-record to reporters – much less reporters from The New York Times – is extremely hard to believe. 

Real news? 

The Times story, if it is to be believed, might actually contain some good news for gun owners. It dissected the rumors that claimed Lake City was considering ending commercial sales, which would have shut off a major source of 5.56mm ammunition for the civilian market. 

Congressman Sam Graves, a Republican who represents Missouri’s Sixth District, along with dozens of other lawmakers warned the Biden-Harris administration in a letter that stopping commercial sales at the Lake City plant would violate the Second Amendment. 

“A White House spokesman, responding on social media, denied such a plan, and later, so did the Defense Department,” the story states. 

Takeaways 

If you accept the Times reporter’s argument, then Ford, Chevrolet, and Dodge must be held accountable for millions of deaths, too, far more than any ammo plant in rural Missouri. And let’s not even talk about Toyota and their pickup trucks. 

Still, it’s obvious that the Biden-Harris administration will use this story and the dozens of others that will likely follow. 

lake city ammunition ammo pallet
Finished boxes of the commercial ammunition are palletized at the Lake City Army Ammunition Plant. (Image: Captain Steven M. Noe, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)

“The site was built for the military, but commercial sales are booming with little public accountability. Rounds have been bought by murderers, antigovernment groups and others,” the story states. 

It’s the mention of public accountability here that betrays the administration’s intent. We will likely see yet another push for background checks on ammunition purchases, a law that’s already on the books in several states, including New York where it’s been a complete disaster. 

For gun owners, there can be only one takeaway from a story such as this: they’ll be going after our ammunition next.

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59 COMMENTS

  1. oh it’s not bumbling. the plan these days is to focus on gun makers and ammo makers and go after them instead of the criminals. it’s the only industry in the world in which the tool of the criminal is to blame, so why not attempt to sue them into oblivion. good plan as long as you have the media to go along with it

  3. In other news, many mass murders use Military Grade Internal Combustion Engines (MG-ICE) to arrive at their crime scenes. These engines frequently use Military Grade Gasoline.

    Exxon had no comment.

  5. “We will likely see yet another push for background checks on ammunition purchases, a law that’s already on the books in several states, including New York where it’s been a complete disaster.”

    They can go get fucked, never in this nation’s distant past have ‘background checks’ been required for ammunition or gun purchases. Ergo, by the ‘Bruen’ standard, a hard no-go.

    It’s time we launched the lawsuits putting a stop to such crap, post-haste… 🙁

    • One of those NYT Gatlings was manned by Winston Churchill’s father-in-law Leonard Jerome, “King of Wall Street,” railroad tycoon, patron of the arts, racehorse owner, yachtsman and general stud.

      Some readers here forget that the 1968 Gun Control Act required dealers to record all ammo purchases. The US Senate and the BATF decided in 1984 that the requirement was a burdensome and useless PITA, and it was canceled in 1986.

  6. This NYT article lays the predicate for Biden to pass an Executive Order banning commercial sales of ammo produced at government owned plants.

    Obama, Biden, and the rest of the elitists running this Country will do anything to emasculate the 2nd Amendment. What better way to do an end run around Constitutional impediments to their actions than to make owning a gun and procuring ammo prohibitively expensive?

  7. I’m guessin there’s nothing that will force them to call out mentally imbalanced people and media influences as the REAL problem, eh!? Didn’t think so!

  8. Reloading has even become prohibitively expensive due to the cost of components, especially primers, if you can even find them.

    • Depending on caliber it’s not too bad once you have the brass covered. Sucks to find large rifle in numbers but otherwise not too bad up here in NY of all places.

        • That was my experience in TN as well on a vacation through the region. With that said if you guys still have large rifle primers in a few months I may need to snowbird for a week.

    • I can find them without too much trouble, the issue is that they cost at least twice as much as I consider reasonable.

      • Never bought primers under .10 per so a return to the mythical before times of cheap components will be a time of wonder and amazement on my end.

    • True dat. Try Powder Valley, theyve had various types in stock every time ive looked lately.

      PS
      They aint 35$ any more though!

  9. “Rounds have been bought by murderers, antigovernment groups and others”

    Fentanyl has been bought by murderers, antigovernment groups, and others, they just do it on the streets in any large city or more lately since the 2020 election pick it up around the southern border where its got so many cartel suppliers they can probably qualify for their own zip code.

    Children have been bought by murderers, antigovernment groups, and others, they just pay the coyotes to walk them across our insecure southern border. (about 75,000 so far)

    And here is the NYT worried about less than .003% of the ‘commercial civilian market’ ammo from LC being in the hands of the criminals they helped create.

  11. Anything related to the 2A is an open target of opportunity of war as far as the idiot Leftists are concerned. They are the enemies of freedom.

  12. What is a Garand without bullets?
    Well it can be a spear gunm or one hell of a club.
    Mattel’s Shootin Shell not so much.

  14. “In recent years, the factory has also pumped billions of rounds of military-grade ammunition into the commercial market…”

    WTF is military grade ammunition? Have I been missing out? Oh man, now I’m worried. Need to check my stash. I wonder what the heck I’ve been buying. Next time I go to the range and pull the trigger, a little flag will roll out that says “Bang”. I’ll be seen as such a fool!

  15. NYT along with the Washington Post are the go paper to for East Coast electorate. NYT major owner is Carlos Slim, richest man in Mexico the other is wholly owned by Bezos.

    • It’s a Nazi miracle…the London mayor was warning the Jewish community to refrain from engaging in hateful Naziphobia. -Babylon Bee

      A White House reporter asked about antisemitism and threats to the Jewish community in the US after the 10/07 attack, so naturally Karine Jean Pierre immediately began lecturing the press about the dangers of Islamophobia. Remember the aftermath of the Christian school attack? Karine Jean Pierre immediately began lecturing the press about the dangers of tranzphobia and the plight of “lgbt” people. Does anyone think the dense, bleeding heart libs are getting it yet, or do more things have to happen first?

  19. On a related note:
    Breaking news, cars used in drunk-driving deaths and hit-and-run deaths were found to contain military-grade gasoline produced by Exxon-Mobil, the same oil company that makes gasoline and diesel for military vehicles!

    The Biden regime is planning to require background checks for each gallon of gasoline. Senator Cory Booker proposed a national gasoline-purchase license, called a “Permit to Purchase a Gallon of Gas” (PPGG) based on New Jersey’s “Permit to Purchase a Handgun.” Car and truck owners must purchase a separate PPGG permit for each and every gallon of gasoline they want to buy, at a price of $15 per permit (per gallon) and wait for a background check in between each gallon they pump, before pumping the next gallon.

    Vice President Kamala Harris immediately endorsed Senator Booker’s PPGG proposal. When reporters asked Kamala Harris if she was concerned that this would drive up the price of gasoline to unaffordable levels, she replied with her trademark cackle, “That’s not a bug, it’s a feature! If it will save one life, it’s worth it.”

  20. I have 10s of thousands of rounds of LC 30/06 ammo with headstamps dating from the 1960s. LC ammo is a common as a sand o the beach and always has been.

    • 30-06 LC is not as powerful as Remington,Hornady, Winchester.
      Anyway the ones I shot were not.
      The LC wouldn’t cycle the action on the 7400 I was using. The others ran without a hitch.
      Military Grade LC.
      150gr @2,686fps
      Commercial hunting rounds
      150gr @ 2,862fps

      • Was the LC loaded to Garand specs?

        I remember seeing people use LC ammunition downunder in the 90s.

    • My dad’s uncle had a full auto Thompson, what did he do when he scabbed the union? , ran over them with his truck.

        • Yeah, but they also passed a bill making it illegal (formally) to intentionally block the right of way of a motor vehicle… Why waste ammo when you can use the “chrome horn” to move some moron blocking the street…

        • Guessing roadblock protests and/or trying to pull motorists out of their cars during a protest are not too common occurances lately.

  27. Public accountability for mass shootings? I want to see government accountability for crime in general and their failures to keep people safe.

  28. BREAKING NEWS: ATF Visiting FFLs and Asking About Forced Reset Triggers. (note: not in the video, but, a person, FFL holder or not, is not required under constitution or law to answer such questions from the ATF. There is this thing called the Constitution, and in that there is this thing called the Bill of Rights and in that there are these things called ‘rights’)

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XTQBJQuvAuk

    • Washington Gun Law has some good videos on caselaw but his videos like this are largely useless as they’re so based on speculation. He’s going off zero information because he has nothing more than what the DC press reported. Did the USSS vehicle contain firearms? Did the suspects actively resist arrest? Nothing at all about it.

      Let the dirtbags who got shot at (but not even hit) complain about the shooting.

  32. Ive been saying this for years, this is all just ludditism.
    The features of a MSR make the rifle easier and more efficient to use, they are obvious technological advancements.
    They dont want you to have ease of use or efficiency.
    Eventually as you trickle down the time line of technological advancements on display in every class of firearm you wind up at the 2 things they want gone; cartridge ammo and the rifled barrel.
    Getting rid of them puts them in their magical place of the 18th century and those muskets they so often hail as the only Constitutionally protected firearm.

  33. “military-grade ammunition”

    hahaha you can always tell people who have no clue about firearms or the military when the breathlessly say stuff like this

    as if “military grade” is good and not just “standardized and cheap”

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