Why would the National Weather Service need to purchase large quantities of powerful ammo? That’s the question many are asking after the federal agency followed in the footsteps of the Department of Homeland Security in putting out a solicitation for 46,000 rounds of hollow point bullets.
A solicitation which appears on the FedBizOpps website asks for 16,000 rounds of .40 S&W jacketed hollow point (JHP) bullets, noted for their strength, to be delivered to locations in Ellsworth, Maine, and New Bedford, Mass.
A further 6,000 rounds of S&W JHP will be sent to Wall, New Jersey, with another 24,000 rounds of the same bullets heading to the weather station in St. Petersburg, Florida.
The solicitation also asks for 500 paper targets to be delivered to the same locations in Maine, Massachusetts and New Jersey.
The National Weather Service is is one of six scientific agencies that make up the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
The solicitation requires a response by August 21.
The NWS is following its federal counterpart the DHS in securing large quantities of ammo. Back in March,Homeland Security purchased 450 million rounds of .40-caliber hollow point bullets that are designed to expand upon entry and cause maximum organ damage, prompting questions as to why the DHS needed such a large amount of powerful bullets merely for training purposes.
As the Business Insider notes, hollow point bullets have been “illegal in international warfare since 1899.”
The DHS is also planning to purchase a further 750 million rounds of different types of ammo in a separate solicitation that also expires on August 20, including 357 mag rounds that are able to penetrate walls.
The DHS recently put out an order for riot gear in preparation for the upcoming DNC, RNC and presidential inauguration. The U.S. Army is also busy buying similar equipment.
The DHS also recently purchased a number of bullet-proof checkpoint booths that include ‘stop and go’ lights…
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44 Comments!
I’ll leave it to others to point out the absurdity of a phrase like “rounds of hollow point bullets”.
As the Business Insider notes, hollow point bullets have been “illegal in international warfare since 1899.”
This ain’t about anything international, then, is it?……
This makes about as much sense as our local public school police force wanting their own SWAT team.
Why does every federal agency need its own police force?
Was there an associated order for earth tone garments?
Instead of repetition and duplication of fiefdoms, bureaucracies, training and equipment, they should have a single agency that takes care of all non-National Security facilities and investigates crimes on such properties. That would help cut down jurisdictional disagreements and paperwork, etc.
But a bureaucracy’s primary product is pages of superfluous regulations for the extending of their power and budget to justify their existence and raises.
The signs, unfortunately are there. We just have to see them. That many rounds for NWS? Over a billion rounds for DHS? Stop and go bulletproof “checkpoints”? In the US of A? WTF??? What do they know that we don’t? Are the Chicoms coming? The Russkies? Or worse…are THEY coming, the Gubmint? Keep yer powder dry, start buying yer ammo NOW, and prepare for the worst. It may be coming, sooner, rather than later. Less than 90 days ’til the election.
Okay, I *know* it’s absurd, but doesn’t it raise the hair on the back of your head a little to see every federal agency arming itself to put down domestic insurrection 90 days ahead of an election that the incumbent big gov guys are likely to lose?
I’m not usually an alarmist, but I don’t like this at all.
^ I was never one either…until the end of 2008……..
On the other hand, this is a wonderfully over the top article, complete with multiple displays of knowing pretty much nothing about firearms ammo. EG:
The article is about an astonishing amount of .40 S&W hollow points, but the accompanying picture is of Federal .45 ACP Hydra-Shoks.
Which “.40 S&W jacketed hollow point (JHP) bullets, noted for their strength” are they getting? I’ve just got to get some of those JHPs that are note for their strength! (WTF does that mean anyway?)
I love that turgid bit about “designed to expand upon entry and cause maximum organ damage.”
And hey, “357 mag rounds that are able to penetrate walls.” OMG a bullet that goes through walls! (Know any conventional ammo that doesn’t?)
By the way, I don’t want to pick nits, but isn’t 500 paper targets kind of poor preparation for 16,000 rounds of ammo? I’m not picking on the article on this point: what does the weather service need ammo for at all? (Stormy weather?)
And once they’ve used up the 500 targets, what will they be shooting at? Global warming skeptics?
Uhh…. is DHS planning to turn the “reeducation camps” for global warming skeptics over the the NWS? Methinks that even the Queen of Hearts that Alice knew would have her head spinning on this one.
#7 Ironic. Maybe they are all piss poor shots, and 500 targets will be enough.
^ wait, I screwed up, it ain’t 16,000 rounds for 500 targets, it’s 46,000 rounds…
…and by the way, how is it that the government is in a financial crisis and the NOAA has its own
policemilitary force? I read somewhere that the Dept of Agriculture has one too.Oh yeah, according to our overlords, the federal government doesn’t have a financial crisis. How can they, instead they have the magic of not having a budget (which therefore cannot be exceeded) and spending whatever the hell they want….
…And now I’m wondering about the armed force size at the Library of Congress and how many “bullets” they need.
Alan obc *: I think you just made my day. Luckily, I wasn’t drinking coffee when you made it.
Yeah, definitely not written by a gun guy.
46K rnds?
That’s only about a hundred adequately armed civilians’ worth.
Heck, I keep ≥500 rnds (10 boxes) of each primary handgun load and ≥1000 rnds of each primary combat-rifle ammo load.
Still, why the NWS?
I’m guessin’ it’s a budget ploy. NWS must’a had a few unspent budget lines, and DHS decided to have ‘em buy ammo for their use.
Either that, or they’ll mysteriously get “misplaced” and end up in some drug cartel’s armory, either lining some Chicago mobster’s pocket or ending up discrediting the Second Amendment.
I wonder who’s gettin’ the keys to these ammo dumps?
Makes one wonder what the Sam Hill’s goin’ on, dunnit?
An audit should prove enlightening.
^ An audit should prove enlightening.
An audit of many things, my man.
Say, Romney’s a business man. You don’t suppose he knows how to employ and deploy auditors, do you?
When they start checking your cars for Global Warming Compliance, they’ll MEAN IT….
;-)
We may have seen our last election, before the revolution.
If memory serves, the NWS/NOAA oversee the Fisheries systems and sites. Having been to 3 or a dozen, the folks at those carry sidearms. 46k rounds doesn’t raise my antennae for the fish guardians.
500k rounds, stop and goes for the DHS and Drones in the skies does.
Alan obc 14: hmmm… ummm…. I wonder, whether in 1848, very many people could see how things would be in 1861.
A long time ago, I had some friends who were connected to a photojournalism effort to document what happened in Lebanon after the king there drove the PLO out (the PLO had tried to overthrow his rule, and he took it badly) and they “settled” in Lebanon. A beautiful country turned into a sectarian hell-hole. I also know a little about the Irish civil war, and the subsequent “troubles.”
I sure hope we can manage our revolution here in the ballot boxes, public discourse, and classrooms. The alternative is so fucking awful it doesn’t bear thinking about. (I’ve also done some reading lately on 1933-34 Germany, while they were having a “revolution” of their own. *Shudder*)
Doug, Wollf. Yeah. I know 46k rounds isn’t as much as it sounds. I know some competitors who’ve each gone through double that in about 10 years all by themselves. But still….
…. interesting though — how did the weather service wind up overseeing fisheries, etc.? Don’t we have endless other fed agencies? What are they doing?
DHS (*spit*) I don’t know, but this is certainly an agency that, under current management, has gone totally out of control. I’d like to see public congressional hearings on every bit of who they are and what the do.
If somebody in this RAT so-called administration wanted to put fear in the hearts of American peeps, then they chose the wrong fucking emotion!
Anger is what they are toying with here. And, I might add that, if this stupid use of our tax dollars is true, which indeed does fit the profile of this bureaucracy, bullet purchases mean nothing unless someone on their side also has the knowledge and skills about “deploying” bullet launchers for maximum effect.
I am purty shore there ain`t no one on the Porch that knows or has ever knowed a Libtard who possessed the *Nom de Guerre* of a fucking Great Captain!
The mere fact that this story has been publicized, *unexpectably* means that we real Americans know where to go to get resupplied with ammunition!!!!!
Don’t forget those new riot style pump shotguns ordered for the Dept. of Edjicashun. Gotta protect up those hall monitors and substitute teachers..
And, on a cheerier note, icicles may be forming in hell:
First, there’s this, about a one minute clip in which a serious, well credentialed Democrat calls Paul Ryan “amazing,” and says his budget proposal is “sensible, serious . . , and honest”
http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2012/08/top-democrat-ryan-budget-is-sensible-honest-serious.php
Then there’s this, in which a well known and read lib:
It’s hard to summarize his thoughts through just a few quotes; you have to read the peice through for yourself:
http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2012/08/galston-makes-a-good-call.php
By the way, notice how BHO’s campaign in 2008 was “hope and change” and now it’s “fear of change?” How’s that for a quick decline?
Ironic 16: (yeh, I’m going to comment myself)
Looks like I had a small brain fart while typing (hope that’s not the start of a trend):
What I meant to say was:
Duh. (*goes off shaking head*)
The more they put in orders for and buy, the less there is out on the civilian market… whether they use them or not, they have them and we’re scrounging for them. But I’m sure there’s no evil intent there…
And who but gummint employees uses (the more expensive) hollow-points for practice?
Maybe they’re not planning on practicing.
I think it’s the typical covert operation financing. Hide it in some obscure budget, but there is no obscurity with technology today. Somebody will be found with their pants around their ankles, a really stupid answer and wonder about their career.
Ironic: Probably because NOAA has boats out already monitoring the water (the “O” is for “Oceanographic”) and it was easier than roping in the Coast Guard.
(Which, the Coast Guard, and the National Law Enforcement Training Center, and the Border Patrol, and Customs and Immigration, are why DHS ordered all of that ammo, as others noted it did – because those are all DHS now, and they all have real, no-bull legitimate needs for guns and ammo for training and their jobs.
Every agency doesn’t need its own separate law enforcement branch.
But whoever ends up doing fisheries enforcement does, and whoever’s patrolling the border does, etc.)
Also, InfoWars?
Don’t. Just don’t.
It’s never a good idea. Jones is a nutbag.
bullet-proof checkpoint booths that include ‘stop and go’ lights…
THAT falls along the line of our conversation today, Sondra!
That being said, THIS sent a chill down my spine:
http://freebeacon.com/silent-running/
You don’t need a “massive cache of high-powered weapons” (aka a gun collection) to know which way the wind blows.
^PRECISELY^
Keep yer powder dry….
Sigivald (25): Well, wow, I figured NOAA was a bunch of wonks with barometers, wind gages and computers.
They enforce things?
The more I learn, the less I know.
Got to say one thing though, if I were any kind of federal agent (or state agent, or whatever) I sure as hell wouldn’t go out in the boonies unarmed. Even not counting the crazies, the drug guys alone have made our beautiful outdoors a jungle. Of course maybe it always was….
bullet-proof checkpoint booths that include ‘stop and go’ lights…
See, that makes me totally nuts. Every time I see something like that, or DHS halting a public bus and pulling everybody off for a spot check, I flash on Nazi SS & Gestapo guys going through a train yelling “papers! papers!”
What the fuck good is it to have a political left if they aren’t going to be all over this shit?
Oh yeah. If we had a Republican in the White House they would be. No doubt their outrage about the dangers of civil liberty infringement will burst into flame next Jan 21.
^ if I’m going to ride public transport of any kind, I need to get a makeup kit that will make me look like an illegal alien, then nobody will dare question or detain me….
The thing to remember folks is that none of these agencies are taking possession of this ammo next week.
It’s more of “We want to buy up to 500,000 rounds of .40 S&W in the next 5 years. We want to lock down a price now.” rather than “Ship ups 500,000 rounds tomorrow.”
But yeah, the weathermen ordering ammo makes me nervous.
It’s fisheries. People have been running in circles on this all day.
http://www.businessinsider.com/this-is-why-the-noaa-supposedly-ordered-46000-rounds-of-ammunition-2012-8
It’s not even that much, and the Post got a variety of details wrong as well (as we’d expect).
This is a situation-normal order.
Because they want to kill us.
That’s the ONLY possible reason.
Mech @ 4: “Why does every federal agency need its own police force?”
TomR @ 19: “Don’t forget those new riot style pump shotguns ordered for the Dept. of Edjicashun.”
Funny you both should bring that up. Turns out the reason the Dept Of Education needed shotguns, is that they have their own SWAT team. The country found out about that last year, when said team took down a house in California, but the perp wasn’t there.
http://jonathanturley.org/2011/06/08/california-family-hit-with-swat-raid-ordered-by-the-department-of-education/
And speaking of not trusting the government, did you catch the “concept” movie trailer at Rodger’s? Spooky bit of work, that.
http://curmudgeonlyskeptical.blogspot.com/2012/08/lets-not-mince-words-about-obama.html
Thanks for contributing to my nightmares, FB ;)
^ Well, MiT, let’s make your nightmare worse:
A blockbuster movie, staring Mel Gibson as the heroic leader of a Dept of Ed swat team. The villains of the movie are right-wing home schoolers* who of course are armed to the teeth with automatic weapons and Bible verses.
* Who are no doubt teaching their children (gasp!) to be global warming skeptics and that God created the universe.
As Merovign pointed out the “training bullets” were intended for the Fish Guards nontheless it causes this speech to pop up in my head.
“We cannot continue to rely on our military in order to achieve the national security objectives we’ve set. We’ve got to have a civilian national security force that’s just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tt2yGzHfy7s
The 46,000 rounds of JHP made me go “huh”, but the 750MM rounds further down the article made me go “WTF!!!!”
Not good….
Melissa (27)
re: Silent Running
That’s what they’d like you to believe.
Everything you’ll ever hear about this stuff is a lie/blind/decoy/deception.
Big Chess™ is more complex than you can imagine.
(What? Uhm, uh, so I hear.)
Ironic (#7): I wondered about that target-to-bullet ratio, too. Either “practice is for wimps” or they’re all sharpshooter-class shooters.
I remember recently about some legislators thinking about putting a 6000-round limit on ammo purchases. I wonder if they’d apply that to gov’t agencies.
(Hot tip: Buy stock in ammo makers)
About “penetrating walls” (duh): In Le Carre’s books about 1940s/50s cold war spies, he mentions that a favorite trick of Russian assassins was to take out about half the powder in a bullet, so that when they shot someone in an apartment, the bullets wouldn’t go through the walls (which were a bit thinner over there, back then).
rickn8or (#33): “…in the next 5 years…”
A perfect example of the capitalist system: bullet futures.
OK, now for the Reality Check: the gummint, armed with really big guns, full body armor, armored vehicles, large coordinated numbers, unlimited funds, on one side; us deer-hunters on the other.
In 1776, our side won because the other side wore bright red uniforms and marched into battle in straight, square formations across open fields, and our guys wore camo-of-the-day (namely, their regular clothes, which just happened to be brown and dark green and such), hid behind bushes and trees and hills, fired from above, and used resistance-type tactics.
And both sides were fairly equally armed: muzzle-loaders, ball ammunition in the original sense. (And the occasional British cannon.)
The deciding factor (if it comes to that) is how many Feds are going to balk at shooting civilians. And if the civilians are sooting back, the decision gets easier.
Spin (40),
This utterance of BamBam’s during his campaign back in ’07, has
stunned & amazed me ever since, that he would ever say something
like that to the American people. Also many other things he’s said!
Finally last week, I think I figured out this campaign tactic.
The 1st part is to see what they can get away with, especially with
the MSM covering for them. I think the Soros/leftist gang found out
that their audiences will welcome anything OBamBam says & cheer.
Then I think the next objective was to see how much & how extreme
were the lies that they could get away with. Well we’ve kinda found
that out. I think another part of this carefully managed ‘campaign’
was to find out how the repubs, patriots & ‘right wing clingers’ would
respond! I think this is why the evolution of the Tea Party has caused
so much extreme response. It’s prolly the biggest threat they’ve
gotten up to when Paul Ryan got the VP pick! FWIW!
All the info in the post & y’all’s comments are considered &
appreciated. The situation is so complex & information so
restricted to specific things, that I don’t think we’re getting the
‘big picture’. Hopefullysome of the trusted investigators & authors
on the blogs will be able to do this as the situation evolves.
My deepest personal feeling at this time is that we will have to
have our Military join with us to ‘defend the constitution against
all enemies, foreign & domestic’, for us to survive as a free country
& society! Also FWIW.