http://www.activistpost.com/
They wanted to know what I had to say, so I said:
Now that I have my coffee this fine and chilly morning, and have read this article, please allow me to opine.
Allow me first to categorically state that I understand and am actually buoyed by the fact that at least some people are taking notice of what the .gov does.
I have done much research and much thinking on this subject thanks to the prior purchases and 176K rounds of Sierra Match King for the DHS does not concern me at all.
This request is by the DHS for the Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Border Patrol.
First the blank ammo: the .gov doesn't use blanks for training trigger control, especially with snipers. They don't need to: why shoot blanks when you have plenty of live ammo to train on? Blanks can also be pretty harsh on VERY expensive rifles. They use it for force on force training with blank adapters on belt fed machine guns. Also, 25K of blanks? Please! In the early 1990's at the Southeastern Hudson Institute of Technology, (a place not known for it's state of the art Weaponry - my issue rifles were a 1965 TRW M14 and a 1965 Armalite AR15 stamped M16) my Vietnam issue M60 was known to go through 600 rounds of 7.62 blank in a 24 hour FTX.
DHS has, to their credit, adopted the Secret Service / FBI model of sniper and overall marksmanship training. That means quarterly qualifications with duty weapons. Got a friend up here (10+ year veteran of the FBI let me shoot his MP10, rad), and he said that during the time ramping up to qualification people would BURN through ammo.
Secret service snipers are some of the best in the world. For one simple reason... they get adequate ammo to train. Snipers are not completely born, nor are they completely made, and good snipers can go through a prodigious amount of ammo. 5K rounds to get someone proficient. In US Army Sniper school there's several weeks of 100-200 rounds a day. Secret Service and FBI snipers get better than military snipers spend much more time on fieldcraft (camo, infiltration / exfiltration and intelligence gathering). DHS snipers train to shoot, that's pretty much it.
Minor note: Military doesn't use much of the .308 (7.62x51mm) in sniper rifles. They use primarily the .300 Win Mag or .338 Lapua. Better range, flatter, harder hitting.
So let's take 5K rounds to get someone trained up (some more, some less), or 2K for qualification and proficiency. We're talking less than 100 sniper qualified officers. I can account for every bullet (CRITICAL NOTE: Sierra Match Kings are not sold as complete rounds, they're sold as bullets, you have to make them into match grade ammo, which is artistry unto itself), and still not do the typical .gov of buying more than I need.
Why buy one for the price of one when you ban buy two for the price of two?
So, I take away form this the important lesson that my .gov is teaching me. Having firearms is important, but having the ammunition to feed them is more important. I do as my .gov does. Stacking it deep.
Am I concerned that the .gov needs so much ammo? Yes. Law Enforcement is WELL armed and has great training. We should be vigilant, but not overly concerned - yet.
Crazed American, out.
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