1.) It is a multi-year purchase.
It is for a least 5 years and possibly out to 10. May have been done to lock in price.
2.) Not kept in perspective.
Q.) How much ammunition do we manufacture in the US?
A.) ONE BILLION ROUNDS A WEEK. So in essence, even if it was a one year purchase they would be pulling down less than 2 weeks production. And that doesn't even consider the ammo flooding in from Eastern Europe and Russia (Wolf, Barnaul, Tula, Ulyanovsk et al). DHS may be deliberately stalling the inspections of the ships carrying ammo but that's another issue to investigate. But you can bet your bottom dollar there's unimaginable amounts of ammo on it's way over. Just be patient.
3.) Far and away bulk of the order is for .40 S&W.
Very few non-Federal LEO's shoot that pos round. I can go to a local WalMart this afternoon and they will have no ammo except for some lead-free hunting rifle rounds and a display case full of 40 Short & Weak. The .gov has a huge investment in pistols in that caliber. Most civilian demand is for 45 ACP & 9MM. I suspect DHS may be afraid that if they do not have a contract, most manufacturers will close the 40 S&W lines and switch production from a round they can't give away to the high demand rounds. In that case this order makes some sense.
I don’t think facts are, for the most part, being deliberately ignored, but I thought your post was a very good one. I don’t know if you have that data at your fingertips (Work in industry or procurement,etc) but it was nice to have some perspective.
Getting data is one thing, perspective is another.
Sure, I could go out and find data on ammunition manufacturing levels in the US (like you did) or find the contractual data the government set with the manufacturer (that is was multi-year, locking in price, done to avoid mass obsolescence, etc) but...this is just one issue. There are probably at least a dozen other issues that warrant this kind of examination, but most people only have so much time to do it in.
I spent an hour the other day looking up data on Welfare and stringing it together to make a point.
If there was real transparency in the government that is one thing, but it is so massive and bureaucratically obese that even if someone in the government wanted to provide that information to alleviate apprehension, it probably isn’t an easy task.
Anyway, thanks for your post. It enables me to see things in a different light, if true.
Perfect. I am a conspiracist, mind you, but this one failed even MY conspiracy urges.