http://www.forbes.com/sites/ralphben...-conversation/
This further discussion of the ammo purchase by DHS appeared on the Forbes.com site just a few days ago.
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As reported elsewhere, some of this purchase order is for hollow-point rounds, forbidden by international law for use in war, along with a frightening amount specialized for snipers. Also reported elsewhere, at the height of the Iraq War the Army was expending less than 6 million rounds a month. Therefore 1.6 billion rounds would be enough to sustain a hot war for 20+ years. In America.
Another author is quoted in the article
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[T]he Department of Homeland Security is apparently taking delivery (apparently through the Marine Corps Systems Command, Quantico VA, via the manufacturer – Navistar Defense LLC) of an undetermined number of the recently retrofitted 2,717 ‘Mine Resistant Protected’ MaxxPro MRAP vehicles for service on the streets of theUnited States.”These MRAP’s ARE BEING SEEN ON U.S. STREETS all across America by verified observers with photos, videos, and descriptions.”
Regardless of the exact number of MRAP’s being delivered to DHS (and evidently some to POLICE via DHS, as has been observed), why would they need such over-the-top vehicles on U.S. streets to withstand IEDs, mine blasts, and 50 caliber hits to bullet-proof glass? In a war zone… yes, definitely. Let’s protect our men and women. On the streets of America… ?”
…“They all have gun ports… Gun Ports? In the theater of war, yes. On the streets of America…?
Seriously, why would DHS need such a vehicle on our streets?”
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At 15 million rounds (which, in itself, is pretty extraordinary and sounds more like fun target-shooting-at-taxpayer-expense than a sensible training exercise) … that’s a stockpile that would last DHS over a century. To claim that it’s to “get a low price” for a ridiculously wasteful amount is an argument that could only fool a career civil servant.
From Townhall.com today
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Government spokesmen, when they're not trying to make 1.6 billion bullets sound like a frugal, Costco-style bulk purchase, will tell you it's all about target practice. Really? I hear that U.S. Army newbies soon to deploy to Afghanistan are training with blank cartridges. Why the priority for arming domestic forces, not military ones?
Even the liberal-minded "debunking" site Snopes.com confirms that the Social Security Administration has procured 174,000 hollow-point bullets for 300 special agents. Meanwhile, the National Marine Fisheries Service, which is tasked with "protecting fish stocks from depletion," has procured 46,000 hollow-point bullets. Spokesman Scott Smullen explained, straight-faced, I am guessing, that 63 fisheries service "enforcement agents" will be using the so-called cop-killer bullets for "target qualifications."(That's 730 bullets for each agent. No mention of the history of how many bullets they have needed, per year, in the past, much less hollow-points.),
Also from Townhall:
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Back in 2008, candidate Barack Obama went off his teleprompter and added a couple of sentences to the text of a speech about expanding the Peace Corps and AmeriCorps. Over rolling applause, the soon-to-be president of the United States said: "We cannot continue to rely only on our military in order to achieve the national security objectives that 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."
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Nearly five years later, it hardly matters that candidate Obama's promise to double the Peace Corps and the rest has come to naught. But the president's unscripted determination to empower a civilian national security force is a different story. As far as you're concerned, though, it's also a nonstory.
This complacency or complicity has to stop. During the last 10 months, the Department of Homeland Security has purchased 1.6 billion rounds of ammunition, including millions of hollow-point bullets. The department also has purchased 7,000 fully automatic assault rifles, and it has overseen the retrofitting of more than 2,000 light tanks, which, of course, were originally designed to resist the mines and ambushes of the battlefield. Why does DHS need such offensive and defensive firepower
It just seems to me that if Obama, the Fed ... whatever you want to call it ... were truly interested in having a mobile, domestic force, they would be following Switzerland's formula of training citizens to defend their country if there were an "invasion" of a foreign force. Unless one is really dumb, they have to notice that foreign invaders, when they outnumber the defenders, have been most effectively damaged by guerilla-type, hit-and-run, resistance than they are by highly visible military units. Iraq and A'stan would be the most recent examples.
And do we really believe there is likely to be an invasion of a foreign force that would require the armaments of the DHS? wouldn't it be more likely that Iran or N Korea would drop a bomb on us; or set off a dirty bomb, v. a land invasion?
1.6 billion rounds is 5 rounds for every US citizen ... do we imagine that if there were a land invasion it would total even 1 million combatants on US soil? That would then be 1600 rounds per "invader". Guess that would mean that all that target practice isn't expected to result in much accuracy?
Either this govt is very dumb or very sinister. They have certainly already shown that they can be very dumb. Even if it is a matter of them just being this dumb, are such dummies the ones who should have all the guns and ammo?
