(NaturalNews) To the country’s largely liberal mainstream media, there is nothing to see here, but to the Government Accountability Office – and a growing list of alternative media – large-scale ammunition purchases by a massive government agency is worthy of closer examination.
The GAO – Congress’ non-partisan watchdog agency – tells US News & World Report‘s “Washington Whispers” column that its investigators are now looking into the purchases – something that would not occur unless there were lawmakers in Congress who were equally concerned and requested that the agency take a peek.
Chuck Young, a spokesman for the GAO, told the column that the investigation is “just getting underway,” and there was no word on when it would be completed, but news of it comes as legislation was introduced in the Senate and the House that would restrict some government agencies from buying so much ammunition just to stockpile.
DHS denies, then admits, ammo purchases
That legislation, called the AMMO Act, was introduced April 26, and if passed it would prevent agencies from buying more ammunition if “stockpiles” are already greater than what they were in previous administrations. The Defense Department would be exempt.
Donelle Harder, a spokeswoman for Sen. Jim Inhofe, R-Okla., who introduced the bill in his chamber, told the Whispers column that the legislation would additionally require the GAO to share its findings on the DHS purchases with Congress.
Per US News:
Officials at DHS have denied to both Whispers and lawmakers that it is stockpiling ammunition. The Associated Press reported in February that DHS wanted to buy more than 1.6 billion rounds of ammunition, but DHS officials testified last week it was only planning to buy up to 750 million.
It’s nice for the Whispers column to give credit to the very mainstream AP, as if it isn’t really “news” until AP reports it, but Infowars.com, along with NaturalNews editor and founder Mike Adams, The Health Ranger, along with this reporter have been documenting these purchases since April 2012. They were real then and, obviously, they are real now.
At first DHS denied the agency was even making the purchases, but then, later, when it became too hard to deny it any further, DHS and in particular, Secretary Janet Napolitano, blew off critics by admitting to the purchases but insisting they were not aimed at the American civilian population.
Which begs the question: Who are these purchases aimed at?
Since DHS is not charged with fighting invading armies and does not conduct overseas combat operations, it strains credibility to be told by DHS flunkies that the ammunition – hundreds of millions of rounds – is needed by the 70,000 armed agents of the department for “target practice.”
Math doesn’t add up
Yet that’s exactly what top DHS training officer Humberto Medina told a House panel earlier this year – that the average of 1,300-1,600 rounds per agent were needed because agents underwent extensive training.
“The idea that you have to have excess rounds, year after year, flies in the face of common sense,” Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., head of the House Government Reform and Oversight Committee told Medina.
Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, added that “the math” – the number of rounds needed per agent – didn’t make sense.
One final fact. The bulk of the ammunition being purchased by DHS were hollow point rounds, which are not generally used by law enforcement professionals to target shoot, for one thing because they are just too expensive. Hollow point rounds, by the way, are prohibited for use in warfare by the Hague Convention of 1899, Declaration III, because they expand easily and flatten in the body.
