The Administration: What Stinkin' Bullets
The below letter to the editor is by Robert "Bob" McDowell, Jr. He is a Professional Engineer and Geologist with over 50 years experience in creating drilling prospects, supervising drilling, well completion, production operation, and pipeline design for oil and gas including repair of problem wells. McDowell is a conservative and active in the Oklahoma Republican Assembly.
By Bob McDowell: A recent daily paper story with a dateline of Washington (AP) carried a headline of Department of "Homeland Security explains bullet cache". The story begins with a paragraph stating "Online rumors about a big government munitions purchase are true, sort of". Of course, the story is about a somewhat widely passed around story of the DHS placing orders for more than 1.6 BILLION rounds of ammunition in the next up to five years.
That number of bullets, assumedly for 'small arms' would be enough to supply, according to the story, five bullets for every person in the US. The DHS claim, according to the story, is that this is to supply training and duty needs for law enforcement agents. The story later on states that such large, multi year contracts are used to obtain a lower price than if the orders were placed on a smaller, as needed, basis. There is some truth to that premiss.
However, the final paragraph states that the training facilities operated by DHS not only serve its own personnel but "tens of thousands of federal law enforcement officers". It goes on to say that more than 90 federal agencies with 70,000 agents and officers used the facilities.
Ok, lets look at numbers: 1,600,000,000 rounds of ammunition divided by 70,000, according to my grade school education, amounts to 22,857 rounds, over five years, so divided again by five equals 4,571 rounds per agent per year. It is my opinion that shooting that much ammunition, for practice, training, or on duty, would wear out more than one barrel of a weapon. It probably would also have a severe impact on the individual, since that equates to at least 12 shots per day, assuming no days off. Attempting that sort of action sure would wear out my physical shooting abilities.
Now for the reason that many are very concerned about the action. One talk show caller, who identified himself as a gun shop owner, stated that the excessive and multi-year order was a ploy to dry up the supply of ammunition, since civilian shops are experiencing long back order times from distributors. It is both perceived and publicly stated that President Obama's administration is attempting to bring about the confiscation of all privately owned guns under the guise of 'protecting the public'. My memory of the events leading up to World War II is clear that the dictators such as Adolph Hitler first disarmed the population so that their own 'police state' organizations could operate unopposed.
That same attitude is what drives the massacre in recent years in so-called 'gun free zones' since the evil ones feel sure that there will be no counter fire to thwart their murderous intentions. It was stated in a talk show that you do not hear of such goings on in inner city schools because gang members might be 'packing heat' there.
Of further concern is several reports that surfaced at the beginning of the Obama administration that President Obama intended to form his own private militia that, according to one report, would be better armed, equipped, and more powerful than the U.S. military. If true, that would add to the explanation for the ongoing moves to deplete the military defense strength.
However, history has shown, that such reductions have been normal in the U.S. with the follow-on result that our enemies correctly perceiving such actions as weakness but also incorrectly assuming that we were weak minded and would not respond in strength. As experienced with the attack on Pearl Harbor on 12/07/41, a lack of defense preparedness contributed to needless loss of life and property.
Such is the history of our nation. It needs to be remembered and future actions changed for our own protection and even for our continued existence as a viable nation of free people. History tends to repeat itself And, that seems especially true of bad history because we feel both the pain and the treats against or the loss of freedoms and / personal independence.
Tags: Bob McDowell, Oklahoma, letter to editor, Federal agencies, guns, bullets, remembering history To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!
Bob McDowell |
That number of bullets, assumedly for 'small arms' would be enough to supply, according to the story, five bullets for every person in the US. The DHS claim, according to the story, is that this is to supply training and duty needs for law enforcement agents. The story later on states that such large, multi year contracts are used to obtain a lower price than if the orders were placed on a smaller, as needed, basis. There is some truth to that premiss.
However, the final paragraph states that the training facilities operated by DHS not only serve its own personnel but "tens of thousands of federal law enforcement officers". It goes on to say that more than 90 federal agencies with 70,000 agents and officers used the facilities.
Ok, lets look at numbers: 1,600,000,000 rounds of ammunition divided by 70,000, according to my grade school education, amounts to 22,857 rounds, over five years, so divided again by five equals 4,571 rounds per agent per year. It is my opinion that shooting that much ammunition, for practice, training, or on duty, would wear out more than one barrel of a weapon. It probably would also have a severe impact on the individual, since that equates to at least 12 shots per day, assuming no days off. Attempting that sort of action sure would wear out my physical shooting abilities.
Now for the reason that many are very concerned about the action. One talk show caller, who identified himself as a gun shop owner, stated that the excessive and multi-year order was a ploy to dry up the supply of ammunition, since civilian shops are experiencing long back order times from distributors. It is both perceived and publicly stated that President Obama's administration is attempting to bring about the confiscation of all privately owned guns under the guise of 'protecting the public'. My memory of the events leading up to World War II is clear that the dictators such as Adolph Hitler first disarmed the population so that their own 'police state' organizations could operate unopposed.
That same attitude is what drives the massacre in recent years in so-called 'gun free zones' since the evil ones feel sure that there will be no counter fire to thwart their murderous intentions. It was stated in a talk show that you do not hear of such goings on in inner city schools because gang members might be 'packing heat' there.
Of further concern is several reports that surfaced at the beginning of the Obama administration that President Obama intended to form his own private militia that, according to one report, would be better armed, equipped, and more powerful than the U.S. military. If true, that would add to the explanation for the ongoing moves to deplete the military defense strength.
However, history has shown, that such reductions have been normal in the U.S. with the follow-on result that our enemies correctly perceiving such actions as weakness but also incorrectly assuming that we were weak minded and would not respond in strength. As experienced with the attack on Pearl Harbor on 12/07/41, a lack of defense preparedness contributed to needless loss of life and property.
Such is the history of our nation. It needs to be remembered and future actions changed for our own protection and even for our continued existence as a viable nation of free people. History tends to repeat itself And, that seems especially true of bad history because we feel both the pain and the treats against or the loss of freedoms and / personal independence.
Tags: Bob McDowell, Oklahoma, letter to editor, Federal agencies, guns, bullets, remembering history To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!
2 Comments:
All of the people listed as using ammunition have always trained and been on duty. Has reporter or anyone checked the records for the past ten years and get the average ammunition purchased. The figures should be about equal. I do not ever remember the shelves being so empty in gun shops or other ammunition outlet. Online is out of stock on almost everything too. Bulk packages of common rounds are not available.
I have said many times gun control was next to impossible but bullet control would be easy, just buy it all up. Most ammunition for the Military is made desperate from the general public because of specific specification so it has to be federal agency purchases or there are some real nuts stocking up out there. My answer in one word is; PREPARE!!!
Prepare indeed.
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