Congressman Asks if DHS Bullet Buys Aimed at Restricting Ammo
Paul Joseph Watson
Infowars.com
March 22, 2013
Californian Congressman Doug LaMalfa and 14 of his House peers have written a letter to the Department of Homeland Security demanding to know why the federal agency is buying so many rounds of ammunition and whether the purchases are part of a deliberate attempt to restrict supply to the American people.
Congressman Doug LaMalfa. Image: YouTube
The DHS has committed to purchasing around 2 billion rounds of ammunition over the course of the last year. Many believe the purchases are exacerbating bullet shortages across the country, supplies already strained by record sales prompted as a result of the Obama administration’s gun control agenda.
“The extraordinary level of ammunition purchases made by Homeland Security seems to have, in states such as my own, created an extreme shortage of ammunition to the point where many gun owners are unable to purchase any,” LaMalfa wrote in the letter.
“Are these purchases being conducted in a manner that strategically denies the American people access to ammunition,” the Congressman added.
According to the Record Searchlight, it is not yet known whether the DHS has responded to LaMalfa’s letter. The report also quotes gun store owners who are suspicious about the federal agency’s huge ammo buys.
As we reported yesterday, other members of Congress who have asked similar questions to those posed by LaMalfa have been rebuffed.
“They have no answer for that question. They refuse to answer that,” Congressman Timothy Huelscamp told WeAreChange reporters earlier this week, adding, “They refuse to let us know what is going on, so I don’t really have an answer for that. Multiple members of Congress are asking those questions.”
Huelscamp promised to keep asking and even threatened to back a move to defund the agency if answers were not forthcoming.
Last Friday, New Jersey Congressman Leonard Lance also indicated that he would pursue an explanation as to why the DHS is engaging in an apparent arms build-up.
“I think Congress should ask the Department about both of those issues and I would like a full explanation as to why that has been done and I have every confidence that the oversight committee ….should ask those questions,” said Lance, adding that he shared a belief, “that Congress has a responsibility to ask Secretary Napolitano as to exactly why these purchases have occurred.”
Earlier this month, Forbes Magazine called for a “national conversation” on the matter despite claims by mainstream media and leftist websites that the issue had been “debunked”. As we documented, the sole source for claiming the story was “debunked” came from a single quote by a DHS official carried in a February 14 Associated Press report.
The AP report regurgitated claims by the federal agency that the bullets were bought in bulk to save money and were for training purposes only.
However, as former Marine Richard Mason told reporters with WHPTV News in Pennsylvania earlier this month, hollow point bullets (which make up the majority of the DHS purchases) are not used for training because they are more expensive than standard firing range rounds.
“We never trained with hollow points, we didn’t even see hollow points my entire four and a half years in the Marine Corps,” Mason said.
After Sarah Palin expressed concern about the issue on her official Facebook page, the Democratic Governors Association (DGA), a lobbying organization which represents governors affiliated with the Democratic Party, started an ad campaign calling on Americans to sign a petition demanding Sarah Palin be denounced for “extremist” rhetoric.
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Paul Joseph Watson is the editor and writer for Infowars.com and Prison Planet.com. He is the author of Order Out Of Chaos. Watson is also a host for Infowars Nightly News.
