Free Republic

TFB friend Nic Jenzen-Jones was commissioned by the Small Arms Survey to document the ammunition used in the Libyan Revolution. The report can be downloaded here. Nic discovered that ammunition was procured form the usual suspects (China, Russia, Pakistan etc.) but I was surprised to discover that a lot of FN Herstal made rounds in Gadaffi’s arsenal. FN discovered that by throwing in a few FN303 less lethal launchers in among a lot of ammunition, they could get approval to export a lot of ammunition on humanitarian grounds. A risky move in my opinion. If Britain or the USA had committed ground troops to the civil war it would have been a public relations disaster...

Shelves of the Walmart on 24th St. have a few boxes of .38, .40, and .380 I was pleasantly surprised to see a few boxes of pistol ammunition along with the 12, 16, 20, and .410 birdshot shotgun loads on the shelves of this Walmart. The clerk said that they had been delivered today, but I saw them at 2:30 pm. He said that .223 cartridges were out the door within an hour, as were any .22 that they received. As usual, they had plenty of .270 Winchester, .270 WSM, .300 Winchester, .300 WSM, and some .22-250. They also...

The first clues appeared in Kenya, Uganda and what is now South Sudan. A British arms researcher surveying ammunition used by government forces and civilian militias in 2006 found Kalashnikov rifle cartridges he had not seen before. The ammunition bore no factory code, suggesting that its manufacturer hoped to avoid detection. Within two years other researchers were finding identical cartridges circulating through the ethnic violence in Darfur. Similar ammunition then turned up in 2009 in a stadium in Conakry, Guinea, where soldiers had fired on antigovernment protesters, killing more than 150. For six years, a group of independent arms-trafficking researchers...

It now seems clear that the Department of Homeland Security’s stockpiling of ammunition and other warfare supplies can no longer be dismissed as “conspiracy theory,” but is a very real development in the actions of an overreaching federal government. Many have suggested and assumed that the ammo and gun shortage experienced across the country is the result of private citizens’ unprecedented purchases, in recent years, in preparation for impending gun control measures. While this is true in part, it is only half of the logical explanation that can be assessed based upon available facts. This phenomenon has been described as...

Why is there such a shortage of ammunition? Is the FedGov buying it all up so that we can’t get any? When will this ammo crisis end? When and where can you find reasonably priced ammunition in the Bryan/College Station area? The Department of Homeland Security recently put in a five year order for 1.6 billion rounds of ammunition. The government contracts provide that Uncle Sam has priority to be supplied first and this allows the government at any time over that five year period to play havoc with the supply of ammunition. There have been calls from prominent Republicans...

The Internal Revenue Service’s admission that it inappropriately targeted conservative political groups for special scrutiny during the 2012 presidential election only gives congressional Republicans more ammunition as they try to defund and weaken the agency. For the past few years, Republican lawmakers have sought to slash the funding of the IRS. Reducing the agency’s budget makes it more difficult for it to collect taxes and audit individuals. (Score one for Republicans who dislike high taxes). But, more importantly, the IRS is also one of the key agencies that will implement the Affordable Care Act. Much of the funding stream for...

Duluth, MN (NNCNOW.com) - A nationwide ammunition shortage has police departments across the country counting their bullets. It's no different in Proctor, where the Chief says he was told he'd have to wait months, even a year to get more ammo. "I was really surprised, let's just put it that way," said Chief Walt Wobig of the difficulty getting ammunition. Woberg says that when he asked suppliers for the 1,000 rounds of ammo his officers needed for training, he was told he'd have to wait months. "I go, 'Do you have 40–caliber qualification rounds?' And they go, 'Well, no. It's...

At one time, it was popular for people to reload their own ammunition. In fact, at one time in American History, it was necessary. It seems like this might be a hot topic for some people so that they can get enough ammunition for target practice, etc. Obviously, those people who do not have ammunition, it would not solve their problems. But if one could buy the brass casings, the bullets, and the gunpowder -- they could make their own ammunition. Is this popular right now? Could someone hundreds of brass casings and bullets along with gunpowder, and keep themselves...

I was doing a radio interview this morning and the host asked me why the Department of Homeland Security needed 1.6 billion rounds of ammunition. The easy answer for me was, “They don’t.” Of course the follow-up question for him was, “Then why are they buying it?” And that’s the billion-dollar question isn’t it. What is the federal government going to do with all that ammo? Why do they need it? Why are they buying it? It’s unprecedented. Are we on the cusp of physical domination by the United States Federal Government? And, if so, how will the American people...

Senator Inhofe of Oklahoma has publicly stated a belief that the gigantic DHS ammo purchases we read about are intended to dry up national ammo supplies and deny ammo to civilian users: http://freerepublic.com/%5Ehttp://www.wnd.com/2013/05/inhofe-dhs-ammo-grab-to-dry-up-supply/ I asked a number of ammo suppliers and component manufacturers about this at the convention in Houston this weekend and and could not get anybody to admit to anything of this nature, all claimed that they were working at top capacity and that civilian demand alone was distorting the market. I don't buy it. I don't see any way that civilian demand could be keeping 22 ammo...

“I now agree that it’s fruitless to give the benefit of the doubt to people who are so obviously corrupt, so clearly malevolent, so bent on hurting innocent people for their own sick gain,” Aurora Sentinel editor Dave Perry wrote in an April 25 editorial. “No more due process in the clear-cut case of insidious terrorism. “When the facts are so clearly before all Americans, for the whole world to see, why bother with this country’s odious and cumbersome system of justice?” he asked. “Send the guilty monsters directly to Guantanamo Bay for all eternity and let them rot in...

1) Because Obama Is Half Black? 2) Because We Are Afraid Of An Economic Collapse That Will Never Come? 3) Because We Are Paranoid Over Unfounded Threats Of Martial Law? 4) Because We Refuse To Accept That The World Is Changing Without Us?

Armscor, popular manufacturer of a wide variety of approachable and affordable 1911 pistols and other firearms, is expanding with new ammunition and firearms manufacturing facilities in Pahrump, Nevada. In addition to helping gun-hungry people everywhere get their hands on firearms and ammunition, their new faciities are expected to create about 50 jobs and be in full production by this time next year. “We are thrilled with the demand for our Rock Island Armory branded products in the US,” said Martin Tuason, CEO of Armscor and Rock Island Armory. “Our new facility will give us the opportunity to increase production and...

Republicans want to limit the number of bullets federal agencies can purchase so American gun owners can buy more.

Federal Power: Homeland Security's procurement officer is grilled in Congress on why federal agents who rarely fire weapons need several times more bullets annually than an Army officer. Who or what are they shooting at? Republican Rep. Jason Chaffetz on Thursday asked Nick Nayak, DHS' chief procurement officer, a question we and others have been asking: Why has the Department of Homeland Security been buying so much ammunition? Dismissed as a concern only of right-wing conspiracy theorists, the reported amounts as high as 2 billion rounds have varied and been explained not as a one-time purchase but a bulk buy...

Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah-3rd District) had serious questions for DHS representatives on Thursday. Fox News reports: Republican Rep. Jason Chaffetz said Thursday that the Department of Homeland Security is using roughly 1,000 rounds of ammunition more per person than the U.S. Army, as he and other lawmakers sharply questioned DHS officials on their “massive” bullet buys. “It is entirely … inexplicable why the Department of Homeland Security needs so much ammunition,” Chaffetz, R-Utah, said at a hearing. The hearing itself was unusual, as questions about the department’s ammunition purchases until recently had bubbled largely under the radar — on blogs and...

Republicans in the Senate and House are expected to introduce a joint bill Friday that would limit the amount of ammunition that federal agencies are allowed to buy and stockpile over the next six months, the Washington Free Beacon reports. The bill, titled the Ammunition Management for More Accountability or “AMMO” Act, is being proposed after several lawmakers have voiced concerns about some federal agencies, like the Department of Homeland Security, seemingly stockpiling large quantities of ammo. “DHS, for instance, has placed two-years worth of ammunition, or nearly 247 million rounds, in its inventory,” the Free Beacon notes. In a...

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) reserves the right to buy up to 750 million rounds of ammunition over the next five years and currently has “two years worth” of ammo on hand, or around 247 million rounds in its inventory, the department’s top procurement official said Thursday during congressional testimony. DHS has already purchased around 41 million rounds of ammunition this year alone, Nick Nayak, DHS’s chief procurement officer, said during an oversight hearing on Capitol Hill. Some $37 million in taxpayer dollars will be spent on the purchase of ammunition in the entirety of fiscal year 2013.

Over the course of the last month, while Americans were distracted with the threat of nuclear war on the Korean peninsula and the devastation wrought by the Boston bombings, President Obama was quietly working behind the scenes to craft laws and regulations that will further erode the Second Amendment. Congress, and thus We the People, may have unequivocally rejected federal legislation in March which aimed to outlaw most semi-automatic rifles, restrict magazine capacity, and force national registration, but that didn’t stop the President from ceding regulatory control over firearms importation to the United Nations just two weeks later. What the...

556RECON.com tracks trends and pricing for 5.56x45 NATO from on-line vendors (Cheaper Than Dirt, AmmoNet, etc.), and the average price has started to drop, if just by a few pennies per round. 62gr Green Tip has dropped from $1.10 to as low as $1.03. This is the average price, the lowest PPR is at 70 cents per round. 55gr Average PPR has dropped to $.90, with the lowest price at 70 cents per round. Interestingly, Cheaper Than Dirt, where I (used to) buy, is consistently at the expensive end of the list, with LAX and Palmetto being the best buys....