“According to one estimate, just since last spring DHS has stockpiled more than 1.6 billion bullets, mainly .40 caliber and 9mm. That’s sufficient firepower to shoot every American about five times. Including illegal immigrants. To provide some perspective, experts estimate that at the peak of the Iraq war American troops were firing around 5.5 million rounds per month. At that rate, DHS is armed now for a 24-year Iraq war.” – Andrew Malcolm in Why are the feds loading up on so much ammo? [via investors.com]

 

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50 COMMENTS

  1. So, DHS has the budget to purchase 1.6 billion rounds of ammunition, but my ship can’t get the funding to get a thousand rounds for weapons re-quals. Right.

    What I want to know is how much of a discount they got for buying in bulk and where it is all stored at.

  2. My only response is that the Feds are going to issue this ammo to thugs who are notoriously poor marksmen
    Has anyone traced the purchase of Precision Rifle ammo by the Feds (obama)?

  3. I wonder if this more of a corrupt backroom deal where some official gets kick backs for buying so many rounds. Furthermore, how much is the DHS paying per round?

  4. I’m not sure about this story. Apparently it’s been traced back to Alex Jones’s Infowars site. So I’m taking this with several metric tons of salt.

  5. I’m glad to see this topic getting attention in a relatively high-profile publication. DHS owes us an explanation for this kind of stockpile.

  6. As another contributor said last week in response to another story, conspiracy theories begin in 3-2-1……..

  8. The DHS has a 20 billion plus budget. NASA only gets 8 Billion. I would de-fund it.

    There are two, and only two reasons why they would be buying so much ammunition, and neither are good.

    I mentioned in another post that I would gladly help raise some seed money to start an ammunition factory business that would cater only to civilians. SAA -“Second Amendment Ammunition” :).

    • > The DHS has a 20 billion plus budget. NASA only gets 8 Billion.
      > I would de-fund it.

      How about pay NASA to send DHS into deep space?

      But not fund NASA for the return trip.

      • No, we don’t want Aliens to find them and assume we’re all barely educated douchebags on power trips. Plus, the sun’s closer.

    • The thing is, DHS is an amalgam of the useful, the useless and the bloody awful.

      I think most folks would agree that we still need the Coast Guard and the Border Patrol.

  9. I love Ronald Reagan, but he made one massive mistake that undid everything – picking George H. W. Bush as his VP. That gave us “compassionate conservatism”, the ’86 gun bill, led to Bill Clinton and the AWB, then to Dubya and the prescription drug plan for seniors and, worst of all, the creation of the DHS. A chain of disaster.

  10. “We cannot continue to rely only on our military in order to achieve the national security objectives we’ve set. We’ve got to have a civilian national security force that’s just as powerful, just as strong, just as well funded.” Obama July 2008.

    I am the national security force, and i will fund it myself, thank you.

      • Do a search at youtube.com – there are plenty video clips of the statement there. Search “Obama national security force.”

    • Another one to file in the category of “if GWB [or any other Republican] had said it, there would have been a complete media freakout, but since it was Saint Obama, crickets”.

  11. at the peak of the Iraq war American troops were firing around 5.5 million rounds per month. At that rate, DHS is armed now for a 24-year Iraq war

    With all due respect, that’s a non sequitur. If you follow the links, that’s 5.5 million rounds per month in Iraq. If you’re not firing more rounds in training than in combat you’re doing it wrong.

    I’ve fired, at a guess, 50K rounds in training /competition, and zero rounds in combat (and I sincerely hope to keep that last number at precisely zero).

    There are good arguments against the increasing militarization of law enforcement, and efficiency arguments against every agency having its own SWAT team and so on, but the quoted argument isn’t on point.

    • As a former active duty infantryman and sniper, the actual number of rounds fired in training can be rather pathetic. I had been shooting 300 rounds per week before enlisting, and my shooting skills steadily deteriorated during my four years active service with sometimes zero rounds per month fired, and sometimes around 300 per month during a particularly range heavy period.

      Granted, this was regular infantry and not Rangers or anything really high-speed, but still, it’s not always what it should be. And everyone thought it was a particularly bad unit. I hope the experiences of others were better.

  12. My public service for the day; Read the actual procurement documents posted online and don’t use Alex Jones as a source of credible news.
    Hint: He doesn’t understand the abbreviation they use and misrepresented 1000’s as millions.

      • Alex Jones sensationalising things? That’s like saying he knows he’s wrong, but that his faithful readers are too dumb to fact check him.

        Wait a minute….

    • Fair enough, and quite possible. However, the fact that we have ANY domestic force directly under the control of the Federal gov (and not subject to public scrutiny) arming up on our (or more accurately our childrens’) nickle is so un-American it hurts. Sure, we’ve had Federal spooks and thugs for a long time, but this is getting out of hand. We’re going the wrong direction on this.

        • No no no. The SS was a military unit. The unit you are thinking about was the Gestapo–a secret police force answerable only to the highest echelons of power. Just like DHS, a federal agaency that has grown tremendously over its brief existence, with innumerable, and apparently unchallenged, power grabs, self-appointed police powers, and massive purchases of firearms and ammunition.

  13. Correction: Since last spring DHS has put out contracts for 1.6 billion bullets [sic*]. That doesn’t mean they have taken delivery on 1.6 billion bullets [sic*]. The contracts are written to purchase “up to 1.6 billion rounds over the next 24, or 36, or 48 months.” That’s not the same thing.

    *Where are the contracts for powder and brass? 1.6 billion bullets isn’t going to do anyone much good alone.

  14. “Including illegal immigrants”

    I suspect that when the “push comes to shove” time arrives the current White House Administration will provide guns and ammo to the illegal immigrants to help them secure, control, and pacify American citizens. I wouldn’t be surprised to see Obummer providing shooting lessons to the illegals now that we all know what a shotgun shooter he is.

  15. You don’t fight a war or oppress a people with handguns. When they order and take delivery on billions of rounds of .50 bmg, 7.62 and 5.56 is the time to start worrying.

    • It is possible they already have quietly accumulated and complied huge quantities of those ammo calibers over the decades. The Pentagon regularly keeps losing track of tens of billions of dollars (FRN) in foreign aid, equipment, supplies, etc.

    • They’ve bought up rifle ammo, too. It seems that they haven’t bought as much though, if the info available is accurate.

      Regardless, I’m no expert but i’d guess that if coordinated teams start doing no-knock visits in the middle of the night, handguns would often be perfectly adequate (even if you do have dogs/alarm systems).

      Now, brownshirts vs. crowds of protesters, that would be different.

  17. At the rate at which Dear Leader’s blowing what little money the government has, we can expect much of this ammo to be sold off as surplus after his term ends. Here’s to waiting for cheap ammo four years from now!

  19. Has anyone considered that the Fed is purchasing tons of ammo, to cause an ammo shortage for civilians. Now that is a conspiracy theory! …but no more crazy than Fast and Furious.

    • Or maybe it’s part of the National Debt reduction plan. Buy up all the ammo, check. Threaten gun owners with bogus bills to ban gun stuff creating a scare, check. Discretely sell the previously purchased ammo at a 200-300% markup, check. Debt reduced at the cost of those that mostly don’t agree with the party in power. Yee – Haaa!

  20. Big Gov will protect you, even if it means killing you…..in the name of the….children. Trust us, its only water, not Zyklon-B.

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