Police Departments Beg And Barter For Ammo While DHS Buys Up

[JohnC]

The nationwide shortage of ammunition has left many police departments scrambling to get their hands on the necessary rounds - with some even bartering among each other.

Meanwhile, Rep. Timothy Huelskamp (R-Kansas) says the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has failed to respond to multiple members of Congress asking why DHS bought more than 1.6 billion rounds in the past year.

Police Chief Cameron Arthur of Jenks, Oklahoma says, "Ammunition and assault weapons in general have skyrocketed...In addition to the fact, not only is it a lot more expensive, but the time to get it could be six months to a year, or in some cases even longer."

Arthur says he is waiting on an order placed last October and that many departments have begun to trade and barter with each other because of the high demand.

"Most police departments are having a very difficult time even getting the necessary ammunition for handguns, shotguns and especially rifles," Arthur said.

"With the delay in ammunition, some departments are limiting the number of rounds they carry in their handgun because of the shortage of ammunition. We get to the point where it is difficult to have enough ammo to train and also equip the officers."
http://cnsnews.com/blog/gregory-gwyn-wi ... 16-billion

[harryset]

Not long ago, I made a comment in a post about how DHS was being requested to police places like Chicago, and the point made to this was that DHS doesn't have any forces. . .Where does the ammo go? Especially 1.6 Billion rounds.

[damian_mb]

1.6 Billions rounds...Consparicy Theorists!!! You are all nuts!


/sarcasm**

[XDM45]

Whenever people say or write "DHS" / "Department of Homeland Security", realize that it's not just one agency like the FBI is, DHS is a collection of various agencies. Think of DHS' organization like the us military which is headed up by the Pentagon, under which operate the US Navy, US Army, US Air Force, US Coast Guard and US Marines.

Immigration and Naturalization Servers (INS) was rolled into what's now called Customs and Immigration Services (CIS), and CIS is under the DHS umbrella.
The US Border Patrol is under the DHS umbrella, as is the TSA and many, many other agencies, many of which are armed.

Yeah, it's a lot of ammo, yeah, we should be concerned, but then again the Pentagon has it's own military which is NOT governed by the Pentagon - and they've had that for years. I won't even get into the NSA / CIA / FBI stuff.

In short, there are bigger fish to fry and there has been for a very long time.

[BC98]

Also understand that DHS has awarded contracts UP TO that number. They only pay for what they actually order.

[tman]

I think FOX News is doing a story on the DHS ammo purchase tonight.

Shannon Bream teased that it will air during the Fox Report at 5:00 central time.

[LarryP]

And they say it's ammo that's banned from being used in war. Which makes no sense to me--

[tletourneau]

Also remember that the Coast Guard falls under DHS.

Sent from my EVO using Tapatalk 2

[photogpat]

DHS bought .40 S&W...Police Dept's are having trouble getting 9mm and .223.

Right?

[river_boater]

And they say it's ammo that's banned from being used in war. Which makes no sense to me--

Maybe they're referring to this.

The principal provision relating to the legality of weapons is con­tained in Art. 23e of the Annex to Hague Convention IV Re­specting the Laws and Customs of War on Land of 18 October 1907, which prohibits the em­ployment of "arms, projectiles, or material of a nature to cause superfluous in­jury." In some law of war treatises, the term "un­necessary suffering" is used rather than "superfluous injury." The terms are regarded as synonymous. To emphasize this, Art. 35, para. 2 of the 1977 Pro­tocol I Additional to the Geneva Conventions of August 12,1949, states in part that "It is prohib­ited to employ weapons [and] projectiles . . . of a nature to cause superfluous injury or unnecessary suffering." Although the U.S. has made the formal decision that for military, political, and humanitarian reasons it will not become a party to Protocol I, U.S. officials have taken the position that the language of Art. 35(2) of Protocol I as quoted is a codification of customary international law, and therefore binding upon all nations.

[river_boater]

DHS bought .40 S&W...Police Dept's are having trouble getting 9mm and .223.

Right?

I wonder what the W. St. Paul PD needs? Maybe I could trade them a few thousand rounds in return for a little more speed-limit enforcement on Delaware Avenue...

[JohnC]

I think FOX News is doing a story on the DHS ammo purchase tonight.

Shannon Bream teased that it will air during the Fox Report at 5:00 central time.

I seen that. Never mind, DHS apparently is buying less ammo in the past two years.

[tac870]

But their orders have tied up all the machinery to make ammunition. This is enough ammo to fight in Iraq for the next 25 years at the height of the war. Government orders are priority one. This is from a good source of mine in the business.

[JohnC]

Here is the Fox report from tonight.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/03 ... stocks-up/

[CarRacer]

The Gear Scout blog run by Military Times had a good write up on this story and how it was overblown. Once you actually crunch the numbers, you'd say they should be buying *more* in order to do their jobs more effectively.

http://militarytimes.com/blogs/gearscout/2013/03/15/homeland-securitys-ammunition-purchases-should-not-worry-you/