Forbes Article - Ammo/MRAP's

I think that would this would be fair to ask of our Congressmen and Senators - "what's up with this"?

Setting aside tin-foil hat stuff, that's an awful amount of money to spend in a tight budgetary environment. Is DHS not getting sufficient program or procurement oversight? (I already know the answer to that one).

Could we ask our congress folks to explain the simple incongruity between any proposed legislation to restrict types of firearms, magazines and ammo for "civilians", while allowing a Federal agency to continually run amok?

On the other hand, if DHS simply must buy 1.6 billion rounds, could Congress not set aside 90% of that ammo order for re-distribution via ... say ... the CMP Store?

Except the article is wrong on both counts.

DO SOME RESEARCH.

The MRAPs are not DHS's assets, they are Marine vehicles being rebuilt.

Also the contract as I understand it is basically a "group buy" for federal agencies, not just DHS, and the contract is very likely for an amount "up to".

Except the article is wrong on both counts.

DO SOME RESEARCH.

Click to expand...

So DHS and other agencys aren't buying up huge amounts of ammo and surplus armored vehicles?

They aren't buying 2700 MRAPs and 1.6 billion rounds of ammunition.

They are buying training ammunition (and on the face of it the amounts always sound enormous to us) but the only reason we're even talking about it is the Alex Jones crowd doesn't understand jack about federal procurement and the BS has spread. And they aren't buying up all the ammo so consumers can't have it, but manufacturers with .gov contracts do have to fulfill them as signed or suffer penalties.

They also aren't buying plastic coffins and establishing FEMA concentration camps, either.

DHS operates like any other government department. It is a fiefdom and power base for the department head. To keep power and place in the government hierarchy, a Department must grow. It must have more and more to do so that it can be seen as more and more important. Gun collectors build their collections in a similar way. The more rare and valuable guns they have, the more important their collection and the more prestige they have among collectors. Bureaucrats and politicians don't collect guns, they collect power. But like a gun collector with an "arsenal" at his disposal, having doesn't equate to using for nefarious purposes or even intent to use for such.

The real danger from a Bureaucracy is that the people running it come and go, but the structure and power base remains and keeps growing and growing and growing...and there is always the possibility that the wrong person will be put in charge and abuse that power.

So is there an accurate quantity known? Or is it classified?
I find the number of agencies that have determined to heavily arm themselves in the last 10 or 20 years to be alarming. I can think of few that haven't built up quite a force and can see little practical use when local LE is what would respond in the short term.
Does the Dept of Ed or NPS, BLM, USFS really need tactical teams?
I tend to agree with the notion that the directors of these agencies like to accumulate power and I also think we might be at the point that the wrong people might be in control. That is not to say that a park ranger should be sent out on duty without being armed and trained but the progression to paramilitary that we see today is more than I can agree with.

Ever heard of the federal firearms training facilities? They're under DHS. The one in Georgia estimates they use 15 million rounds a year. Google - Federal Law Enforcement Training Center / FLETC.

There is another residental training center in New Mexico and one in South Carolina. So that makes 3 large centers. Then there's a qualification facility in Maryland and the agency has responsibility - and supports - international training facilities in Thailand, Botswanna, Hungary and El Salvador.

FLETC trains all sorts of law enforcement personnel: state. local, tribal, etc. They train federal LE from 90 agencies.

And that's just this little training outfit with a handful of training facilities. DHS is - obviously - much larger with over 240,000 employees.