While I am not the ‘black helicopter behind every tree’ type, this one makes me curious. I am sure you heard of the DHS buying up lots of
ammunition. This coming from a guy for whom ‘too many bullets’ is almost an inconceivable notion. There are those who are assured this means an
imminent lock down on our streets is right around the corner.
While I have no insider information to confirm or deny that outcome, I am very curious on the quantities. I reload my own ammunition. If the DHS is
buying up every spare bullet on the planet, the prices for reloading components are going to shoot through the roof if you can even get them at all.
Ammunition manufactures love when the government purchase their wares. It’s not like when a normal person who can actually operate a calculator
purchases something from them. But, on the surface, I do wonder why do they need these amounts? Let’s put it in perspective.
The DoD, in the middle of two wars, purchased around 1.8 billion rounds per year. At least last year. The DoD employs around 3.2 million trigger
pullers.
en.wikipedia.org...
That amounts to around 560 bullets per trigger puller per year. That sounds like a lot but when you use it at this rate:
www.youtube.com...
...it is easy to see how the quantities add up.
The DHS is a cabinet department which umbrellas other agencies.
en.wikipedia.org...
They employ around 200,000 people. They have a lot of folks who need to shoot either in practice or in the course of real life. But just how many?
This is harder to find. There are those on the Internet who claim 200,000 people will fire up a lot of ammunition. Could be. But does every single one
of those 200,000 carry a gun? There are no administrative or logistics folks? No department heads? Every single employee of the Animal and Plant
Health Inspection Service, the Environmental Measurements Laboratory, and the National Domestic Preparedness Office all wake up in the morning, roll
out of bed and commence to runnin’ and gunnin’ till the whistle blows and it’s time to go home? I find that hard to believe.
For arguments sake let’s assume a quarter, 25%, of the DHS employees need to shoot. If you think this is too low, you have no idea how many Federal
employees it takes to not do a lot. So, 50,000. Got it. They need to practice, need to carry magazines on the job, etc. They will need bullets.
Let’s look at how many the DHS has provided them.
Here are some charts to help see it.
www.prepperpodcast.com...
If this is accurate, since 2008, the DHS has ordered in the neighborhood of 1.8 Billion rounds of ammunition. If we take our 25,000 employees and give
them an even amount of that 1.8 billion rounds (forget different calibers, different departments, etc. for a second) how many does each get? That’s
about 72,000 rounds per employee for the 5 year period. Or 14,400 per employee per year. (I sure hope my public school math isn't showing). Let’s
say our 25,000 was off target and go with every single employee toting a shootin’ iron. That’s still 9000 per employee per the 5 year period or
1800 per employee per year.
That’s a lot of shooting. My guess is we are closer to the 14,400 than we are the 1800. I am also guessing there is no way DHS gun carriers are
practicing that much. If they are, when are they out on the streets actually doing their duties? We must have a government agency full of crack shots
by now. Once they retire from the DHS they can all join the circus as trick shooters.
Does this portend the DHS is planning a takeover of out fair country? I don’t know. Is this a simple case of government bureaucrats, drunk on the
tax payer dollar, trying frantically to spend every dime they get to ensure next year they get more? Maybe.
If I were to be convinced the DHS is planning on locking down the US in some sort of Soviet era, throw back, police state, I will need to see more
than ammunition sales receipts. It will take more than a few bullets to make this happen. I'm not saying it could never happen, I just don't see a
causality between the lock down and the ammunition sales.
And for those who think I am blind, do the math on the other side of the equation. Who would those DHS agents face? Fellow Americans, which is another
story but... How many guns do Americans own? Estimates are around 200,000,000. What were the total commercial ammunition sales last year? Granted a
more difficult number to pin down but if each of those 200,000,000 firearms had 25 rounds of ammunition per year, that is 5 BILLION rounds sold per
year. Any idea how much the average gun owner has on hand at any one time? Not too many are forthcoming with that information. My guess is over 25.