I’ve pointed out before that bullets by themselves are pretty worthless. I still haven’t seen a story say they are ordering cartridges.
Remember the newspaper headline:
“Bullets are flying off the shelves”
LOL
Do you think that the folks in the press actually know the difference ? Or even care?
The govt is placing orders not just for bullets but complete cartridges of ammunition. The DHS has even gone so far to try & redact the paperwork for the orders from govt. web sites.
That comment does not serve you well.
People say "bullets" when they mean "ammunition". The orders and deliveries are for ammunition. Lots of ammunition. Delivery dates prior to November 2012, for lots of that ammunition.
The annual purchase quantities for many agencies are orders of magnitude larger than historical usage levels - in fact the annual civilian agency purchases are now larger than what the military buys to fight hot wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
The agencies are also now starting to buy more weapons. I guess they have figured out that they will need more guns if they are going to shoot more ammunition.
Oddly enough, many departments are seeing actual cuts in training budgets and available range time is at bare qualification minimums for armed agents.
We can certainly hope that the new inventory will molder away in storage somewhere.