The Government Is Buying Tons of Ammo to KILL US ALL!

And it’s the Department of Homeland Security, so clearly it’s a new national police force answerable only to Obama!

And they’re buying enough ammo to shoot every American citizen six times!

And it’s a bunch of other Government Departments, too, like Social Security, so obviously they’re stockpiling ammo to quell civil disorder when the economy / government welfare collapses!

And it’s hollow-point ammo which is outlawed by the Geneva Convention!

And it’s in huge amounts, so it’s obviously a way to create de facto gun control by buying all the ammo!

Or at least those are the reports passing around the Right Wing Blogosphere.  It’s gun control! It’s civil unrest! It martial law! The only thing that hasn’t entered into it is preparing for an invasion from outer space.

Yet.

Okay, everyone … deep, cleansing breaths.  Breathe in. Hold. Breathe out. Repeat.

Calmer now?  Good.

So, the reports are, more or less, true.  But the wild-eyed explanations are, to put it mildly, goofy.

1. The DHS isn’t buying 450 million rounds of .40 cal ammo today. They have a purchase order (from last year) to be able to buy up to 450 million rounds over the next five years (a one year delivery contract with up to four option years, in government contact parlance).  They don’t have to buy all of that.  They might only buy 100 million rounds. But by making the commitment right now, when prices are (from what I read) very low, they lock in a good prices and fulfill the government “use it or lose it” budget requirement. Plus, it’s a consolidation of multiple previous contracts into one contract, which is a good, efficient, economical sort of thing, even if it means the final number seems big.
2. Yes, that’s still a lot of ammo. But DHS covers an array of agencies, all with armed personnel — the TSA, Customs & Border Protection, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and the Secret Service. (They also cover the Coast Guard, but get their ammo from the Defense Dept.)  There are a lot of armed agents (135,000 in Homeland Security). And those agents not only carry ammo, but they have regular requirements (at a minimum) for practice and re-certification. Not to mention the need to refresh their ammo over time. And DHS also operates the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center, which trains nearly all federal law enforcement officers (including shooting ranges and the like) in “90 federal agencies and also officers in state, local, tribal, and international law enforcement”; just their 11,000 students go through 11 million rounds a year.
3. Hollow point bullets are banned in military action because of the injuries they cause (the point flattens/mushrooms, tearing through the body more brutally).  But they are useful in civilian settings, as I understand it, because they don’t penetrate bodies nearly as well. So if you have to shoot that bad guy over there, you don’t have to worry (as much) that your shot will go through him and hit that civilian behind him.
4. Yes, the Social Security Administration put in an order for several hundred thousand rounds.  Same arguments apply. They have armed agents, too, as they are put in the position of arresting people, or of guarding facilities.

So, really, there’s not a lot of need to worry that the Federal Government is stockpiling ammo in order to kill all their enemies (that’s what drones are for).

Here are some articles on the above subjects (note that while the comments have just the kind of conspiracy theories one might expect, they also have some nicely sane explanations from folks, too):

• Why Is Homeland Security Buying 450 Million Rounds of Hollow Point Bullets? | Video | TheBlaze.com
• Why are so many of these federal agencies buying multithousands of rounds of ammo? – Yahoo! Answers
• PolitiFact Texas | Chain email says Homeland Security purchasing many bullets perhaps in anticipation of civil unrest or an invasion
• snopes.com: Social Security administration Ammunition Purchase