Government Preparing for the Collapse with Large Ammunition Purchases?

E-mail received recently:  "I am concerned about the humongous ammunition purchase by the Government (non-military). I saw reports about how much ammunition they use a year and the figures did not add up. If they use 15 million rounds in one year, it would take over 100 years to use the 1.6 billion rounds they are buying. What are you thoughts as to the Government preparing for a crackdown? I have also read reports of tractor-trailer trucks transporting loads of signs that read 'Martial Law in Effect". All this is stunning and scary news. Interested in what you have to say."

UrbanMan's comments: First of all, I have seen nothing of Martial Law signage. Sounds like an internet legend to me unless there are some verifiable sources. Second of all, the Government does have some plans for internal civil operations to quell disturbances and react to terrorist attacks, just like they have contingency plans to invade about every country of the face of the earth. This is what they do,...create "what if" plans. And it is concerning that it seems like the government has taken the stand that it is okay to kill American citizens outside and inside of this country using drones or other means. But I don't think the large ammuniton purchase is in preparation for civil war or whatever.

Here is an the report from Fox News about the large ammunition purchase by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS):

The Homeland Security Department wants to buy more than 1.6 billion rounds of ammunition in the next four or five years. It says it needs them -- roughly the equivalent of five bullets for every person in the United States -- for law enforcement agents in training and on duty.

Published federal notices about the ammo buy have agitated conspiracy theorists since the fall. That's when conservative radio host Alex Jones spoke of an "arms race against the American people" and said the government was "gearing up for total collapse, they're gearing up for huge wars."

The government's explanation is much less sinister.

Federal solicitations to buy the bullets are known as "strategic sourcing contracts," which help the government get a low price for a big purchase, says Peggy Dixon, spokeswoman for the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center in Glynco, Ga . The training center and others like it run by the Homeland Security Department use as many as 15 million rounds every year, mostly on shooting ranges and in training exercises.

Dixon said one of the contracts would allow Homeland Security to buy up to 750 million rounds of ammunition over the next five years for its training facilities. The rounds are used for basic and advanced law enforcement training for federal law enforcement agencies under the department's umbrella. The facilities also offer firearms training to tens of thousands of federal law enforcement officers. More than 90 federal agencies and 70,000 agents and officers used the department's training center last year.

The rest of the 1.6 billion rounds of ammunition would be purchased by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the federal government's second largest criminal investigative agency.

ICE's ammunition requests in the last year included:

- 450 million rounds of .40-caliber duty ammunition

- 40 million rounds of rifle ammunition a year for as many as five years, for a total bullet-buy of 200 million rounds

- 176,000 rifle rounds on a separate contract

- 25,000 blank rounds

The Homeland Security ammo buy is not the first time the government's bullets purchases have sparked concerns on the Internet. The same thing happened last year when the Social Security Administration posted a notice that it was buying 174,000 hollow point bullets.

Jonathan L. Lasher, the agency's assistant inspector general for external relations, said those bullets were for the Social Security inspector general's office, which has about 295 agents who investigate Social Security fraud and other crimes.

UrbanMan again: A friend of mine in one of the largest federal law enforcement agencys told me that if everyone agent/officer shot every firearms qualification (very unlikely), and received their maximum ammunition allocation, that they would expend 12 million rounds a year. This is not counting the academy training, nor the high levels of ammuntion expended by their tactical units. This is only one agency so the 15 million rounds a year is extremely low counting all the federal law enforcment agencies.

While I don't think the government is planning on a need for this ammunition in the streets of America, a secondary effect of such a large ammunition buy may just result in much less ammunition so the preppers can get any.  The shrill cry for draconian gun control also had an effect in ammunition stocks in gun stores,  sporting goods stores and on-line sources becoming scare.