The new meme: "The government is causing the ammo shortage"

[Earth_First]

I've seen this several times in the past week via Facebook and Twitter...

"They cannot take our weapons; so the government is deliberately creating ammunitions shortages..."

So in their own rush to hoard weapons and ammo they've created an ammunition and weapon shortage and then blame demand out-pacing supply on the government?

[davidpdx]

1. I have no doubt there is enough ammo out there to kill everyone in the US at least once

, maybe more than that. I believe there was just an article today about them finding someone dangerous with a shitload of ammo (although I can't remember the details). It is scary.

[Peter cotton]

4. Considerably more than that, actually.

While there's no way know definitively, let's assume each gun owner has five boxes of ammo. That's 250 rounds X 100 million gun owners = 25 billion rounds. Enough to kill everyone on Earth four times over, never mind the U.S.

[davidpdx]

6. Yeah I was thinking it was several times more

but not sure how many. And to think we use to worry about nuclear war...

[NickB79]

10. Approximately 5 billion rounds are made and sold annually

And since ammo has a shelf-life of 50 years or more, there are probably many 10's of billions of rounds in storage throughout the US.

[davidpdx]

12. That is scary, very scary

With a shelf life of 50 years, you'd have ammo as old as 1963 that could still possibly be used.

[oneshooter]

14. I have some ammo

from the 1920's that will still fire. Might be a slight delay, but it still goes bang.

[davidpdx]

16. I am not very knowledgeable about guns and ammo

But wouldn't there be the possibility of the ammo being unstable after all that time?

[Laurian]

2. I heard this some time ago in a radio interview

with someone who owns a gun supply store. Frankly, I hoped it was true..... If the govt buys up the ammo, less available to the nuts.

[Viking12]

3. Of course, the govt has to supply the private black army to start the race wars

[eShirl]

5. Maybe. Two wars gotta be using up lots of ammo.

[ManiacJoe]

11. Right on the money!

Two wars for the last ten years. Military contracts are taking up most of the production cycles and supplies.

[alcibiades_mystery]

7. I wish it were true!

[NutmegYankee]

8. Nuts blame everything on the Gov.

My favorite is the rants blaming the Gov for food prices. They can't acknowledge that the drought and corporate greed are driving prices up.

[X_Digger]

9. Funny thing is, the DHS has made some huge ammo purchases in the last year or two..

http://www.democraticunderground.com/101622106

Why Does The Department Of Homeland Security Need 450 Million Hollow Point Bullets?

As has the Social Security Administration..
http://www.snopes.com/politics/guns/ssabullets.asp

A solicitation posted by the SSA on the FedBizOpps website asks for contractors to supply 174,000 rounds of ".357 Sig 125 grain bonded jacketed hollow point pistol ammunition."

And 76,000 rounds to NOAA (Fisheries Office)..
https://www.fbo.gov/index?s=opportunity&mode=form&tab=core&id=bfd95987a1ad9a6dfb22bca4a19150cb&_cview=0

It's not that these are such huge purchases- officers (federal or otherwise) need to practice to remain proficient. It's only because of increased transparency and the internet that we know how much ammunition the government goes through now. Before, it would be a line item on a spreadsheet somewhere, or buried in a departmental budget.

[madinmaryland]

13. Actually all of the GUN-NUTTERS are creating the shortage all by themselves.

Fucking douchebags.

[BainsBane]

15. the dregs of society

all of them.