450,000,000 rounds is a lot of ammo, considering you're never planning to deploy overseas...
I mean, if I read that the Marines were buying up half a billion rounds, I'd just call it good planning - though I don't know what they'd do with that much pistol ammo. Dunno what DHS has planned for it either - but warm and fuzzy are not the feelings the speculations raise.
Hey, you know what I want to see? I want to see a company get a government RFQ like this and instead of responding with a quote, telling the .gov to pound sand. Not holding my breath, it's just something I'd like to see.
WTF does DHS want with that much .40 cal?
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Think of the chaos that would ensue after a few random squibs and a few random double charges. QC on 1/2 billion unit's is a BITCH.
Not that I would EVER consider it a good idea for someone to intentionally monkey-wrench in such a manner...innocent people could get hurt after all.
Years ago I lived near a public range that the local Highway Patrol office used for training. When they were shooting, they'd have a 55 gallon drum filled with ammo behind the firing line. They'd all be blazing away just as fast as they could, and when they emptied their magazines they'd run to the drum to reload. Get tens of thousands of those clowns all doing the same thing, and I could see them going through that much ammo.
That's almost 2 for every man, woman and child in the US.
RE: RFQ- Another option I'd enjoy would be giving them a quote...
$10.00+/rnd. "Gee, guys, but that's what your buds in Congress think ammo should cost."
Idiots. They seem to have forgot that the Vasili Blokhin strategy was to use a .25 ACP to avoid discomfort from recoil. You know, with the volume he was working with and all.
Umm - maybe to keep it out of the citizen's hands?
Under the DHS umbrella is Customs/BP, the Coasties, Air Marshals, and Secret Service. That's a lot of ammo, but when you consider that it's training and duty ammo for... let's see, Customs/BP, USSS, and ICE is over 50,000 sworn personnel right there, and there are how many in the Coast Guard, not counting auxiliaries and reserves? ...anyway, it's not as big a number as it sounds, and Secret Service, FAMs, and BP are well-known for having voracious training ammo requirements.
This doesn't set off any particular alarm bells with me.
You'd think... if they actually do "train" that much... that they'd be better shots.
But "blazing away as fast as they can pull the trigger doesn't sound like any good "training" to me... just the usual BS and waste.
What the hell... it's not as if they were spending their own money.
Just saying...
Mama Liberty,
I sincerely doubt I could pass a FAM qual course. They train. So does USSS. And it takes a bunch of ammo to maintain those proficiency levels; ten thousand rounds a year and more, per dude. Granted, those guys represent a tiny fraction of the total number of people under DHS, but they will wind up accounting for a disproportionate amount of the ammo.
Although it wouldn't surprise me if there wasn't some contingency planning going on here in that, if I knew my normal ammo requirement was "X"-million rounds per year, and I was expecting the dollar to continue to nosedive against metals prices in the future, it would make sense to lock in a many-year supply at current prices.
Another angle, which is pure speculation, is that there's a bit of stimulatin' going on here. ATK expanded production dramatically to meet demands for the .mil during the Global War On a Noun, and a military drawdown would have some negative effects on the economic side...
Sure Tam...I would imagine that SOME of these yahoos train well, though I can't imagine why they'd need all that ammo for it. They never heard of dry fire?
Anyway, I've WATCHED local "cops" shoot, both here and in Calif. Some can, some can't hit much of anything, and the national statistics do not support the idea that they really train all that much.
"Blazing away" as fast as they can pull the trigger is not usually considered real training among the instructors I know. It's called "messing around" and it's a lot more fun if you don't have to pay for all that ammo.
Well, no. Tam's got a point. Allegedly, at least, some feds do train with their firearms and their proficiency is much higher than that of your average cop.
I don't know that for sure, but that's what I've heard.
Half a billion rounds still seems like a helluva lot for the purpose.
http://www.triplenickel.org/
Incidentally, that last link is an interesting example of the problem: no matter whether you can complete the Triple Nickel in the specified amount of time or not, you don't get a trinket unless you are one of The King's Men.
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