[tobyhill]

Is 500 shells a "stockpile"?

[MikefromOhio]

when you are trying to say that you don't have them?

You bet your arse it is.....

[dartuser]

Nope, no stockpile ... it has to be 525 or more to be considered a stockpile ...

nothing to see here ... move on ...

</sarcasm>

[Christian4Bush]

Is 500 shells a "stockpile"?

---

Depends on who you ask.

I'm reminded of an exchange from the movie "The Rock", where Ed Harris played a disgruntled military man seeking revenge on the government for the treatment of POW's. He sought millions of dollars in reparations for he and his men, or else he would release rockets filled with VX/Sarin gas into San Francisco, from "The Rock", Alcatraz.

Well, in the strategery meeting, which was attended by the late John Spencer (also in "The Negotiator", "The Left Wing"), the following exchange happened: (by the way, this movie was made during the Clintoon admin):

MAJ. KRAMER: "Wait a minute. What is the approximate casualty rate of a rocket armed with VX gas?"

COL PETERSEN: "...about 60 or 70."

COS HAYDEN SINCLAIR: "Well, that's not so bad."

COL. PETERSEN: "Thousand. SEVENTY THOUSAND, dead. One teaspoon of this stuff hits the ground, it's lethal only up to a couple of feet or so. One teaspoon of this sh*t in the atmosphere...will kill every living thing within a ten block radius. Get the picture?"

COS SINCLAIR: (resigned) "yeah."

[Lekker 1]

Let's see...assuming each projectile is equivalent to a 155-mm GB (Sarin) round uploaded with 6.5 pounds of GB, that would be approximately 1477 kg (1.6 tons) of GB Agent. The LD50 for Sarin is about 100 mg percutaneous per 70 kg man, for a total of 14,770,000 lethal doses to the skin, at 50% fatality. That's more than enough Sarin to kill 7,385,000 people, or the population of Los Angeles, Chicago AND Houston.

[MarkeyD]

Could be. I thought all the chemical weapons were destroyed. Hans Brix said so.

[MikeA]

If we know of 500 shells, there were likely many, many more...probably most of it shipped out to Syria as General Georges Sada, one of Saddam's air marshals, said was the case.

[Rightwing Conspiratr1]

Is 500 shells a "stockpile"?

To a liberal, 500 shells of nerve gas in Iraq is nothing, but 500 .20 gauge shotgun shells in your closet is a stockpile. ;-)

[DuncanWaring]

Is 500 shells a "stockpile"?

It depends on whether the US President is a Republican or a Democrat.

[Smokin' Joe]

If two shotguns, a .22 rifle, and a cheap 9mm handgun is an "arsenal" (as the DBM usually reports), I'd say 500 artillery/mortar shells is a "stockpile"...ymmv.