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U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement says it possesses a “limited amount” of 9mm bullets for agents in the field as well as for training purposes, and it is rationing its ammunition based on internal requests until it can award a new contract. [ ] The apparent role poor planning, or another agenda, played in the issue came to light when ICE said it would have run out of 9mm ammo by June 2017 in the absence of a modified contract with its supplier, Vista Outdoor Inc. So, the agency last month approved a $363,307 ceiling increase to contract No. HSCEMS-11-D-00002....

As gun sales break records—partly because of fear of coming gun control from the Obama administration—supplies of ammo ran so low that gun stores and ranges have to ration ammunition. Meanwhile, rumors of mass purchases of ammunition made by government entities began to fly around the Internet. Making all this even worse is that fact that it hasn’t been a short-term supply problem. Now well over a year since the shortages of popular types of ammo began there are still empty shelves and rationing here and there around the United States.

The containers (like those pictured) are usually painted olive drab and are unmarked except for indistinguishable numbers/letters probably for inventory, routing, etc. Reader Don sent this in recently: Jim – I passed a convoy of olive drab unmarked 40 foot tractor trailers each with four 10 yard ammo bunker boxes chained to them and unmarked armored Hum-Vee’s heading north on I-95 in Brevard County, Florida this past Thursday morning. The “govt” is positioning these ammo storage boxes, I have been told, in strategic places in population centers around the country. They are usually painted olive drab and are unmarked except...

PHOENIX, AZ --(Ammoland.com)- I haven’t seen anything that suggests foul play of any kind, to me, it’s strictly supply and demand, and it shows you what panic in a market looks like. Rationing and price spikes are the result of demand far outstripping supply. Sure, government ammo purchases should give you pause, it’s the reason we’re all armed. A trusted source provided this: “Take for example .22LR ammunition. The industry as a whole (all manufacturers combined) is setup to produce 4,200,000,000 (4.2 Billions) .22 LR annually. That is running all the machines, full capacity all the time, all manufacturers together....

Over the past year and a half, the Department of Homeland Security has put forth solicitations for nearly 2 billion rounds of various ammunition over the next few years. Last Wednesday, the House of Representatives voted to stop DHS from entering into new contracts for purchases of millions more rounds of ammunition until they provide reports to the Congress on the cost and need for ammunition. “Given this large purchase, the American people and members of Congress rightfully had concerns and questions,” said Representative Mark Meadows (R-NC), who proposed an amendment to the DHS spending bill for 2014 that would...

On the heels of news that the Obama administration Department of Justice was spying on reporters at the Associated Press, Monday brought the startling disclosure by the Washington Post that the DOJ had also targeted Fox reporter James Rosen for surveillance in an effort to plug up leaks. Additionally, the New Yorker’s Ryan Lizza obtained the full application for a search warrant of Rosen’s personal email account, in which the DOJ accused him of being “an aider and abettor and/or co-conspirator.” As Lizza put it, “Rosen was not charged with any crime, but it is unprecedented for the government, in...

As the "Great Ammunition Shortage" continues, police departments across the country are struggling to supply their arsenals. One police chief turned to the community for help, and citizens stepped up. In Proctor, Minnesota, police chief Walter Wobig says that his suppliers have told him he'll have to wait "months" for the 1,000 rounds he's requested. When Wobig turned to the residents of Proctor by putting out a call for help meeting his department's ammo needs, citizens contacted his office, eager to help. "The citizens were like, 'If you need something, we got plenty here,'" said Wobig. One resident and a...

On Aaron Klein’s weekend show on New York City’s WABC radio, Oklahoma Republican Sen. James Inhofe accused the Obama administration of buying up ammunition at an unprecedented level to bypass the Second Amendment so gun-owners “can’t even buy ammunition because government is purchasing so much.”

10. Does your company currently produce and/or sell any of the training calibers listed above? If yes, provide a list of your Government customers to include agency name and a point of contact with phone number or email address. 11. Describe your production facilities and capabilities. 12. Describe your quality assurance program. 13. What is your experience in working with your customers to identify and correct potential quality issues? 14. Are you capable of producing any of the training calibers listed above to meet the stated performance requirements? 15. Are you capable of producing large quantity orders of any training...

U.S. Sen. Jim Inhofe, R-Okla., says he believes open purchase orders from the Department of Homeland Security to buy over 1 billion rounds of ammunition are part of an “intentional” effort by the Obama administration to “dry up the market” for gun-owning citizens. “We have in this country the Second Amendment that preserves the right to keep and bear arms,” Inhofe told radio host Aaron Klein, “and the president doesn’t believe in that.”

Per Megan Kelly. Group of lawmakers charging this. Details pending.

USBC News Wire. Washington D.C.- Questioning in a recent House committee hearing revealed controversial measures by the Department of Homeland Security to allots DHS officers nearly 1,000 rounds of ammunition more than used on average by even Army officers. Republicans Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.) and Congressman Frank Lucas (R-OK-3) have introduced the Ammunition Management for More Obtainability (AMMO) Act of 2013 to curb this stockpiling by the agency by requiring the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to produce reports covering ammunition purchases by federal agencies.

Even realizing that he was going to immediately be labeled as a Right wing conspiracy theorist by the Left, Congressman Jason Chaffetz posed a rather pesky question to the Department of Homeland Security this week which is sure to get a lot of tongues wagging. Why do they need to purchase huge stockpiles of ammunition? Far more, in fact, than the Army buys on a per capita basis. Homeland Security’s procurement officer is grilled in Congress on why federal agents who rarely fire weapons need several times more bullets annually than an Army officer. Who or what are they shooting...

An enraged Barack Obama lashed out at Congress and "willing liars" who defeated efforts to expand federal gun control laws. Obama and Joe Biden spent weeks – and millions of taxpayer dollars – campaigning for a federal registry of gun owners, ban on entire classes of firearms, and capacity limits for magazines and clips. But, at the same time that Obama was trying to limit or deny the rights of citizens, the government was loading up – literally – in an unprecedented way, including 174,000 hollow-point bullets for the Social Security Administration.Some of the truth was exposed in a recent...

Federal Power: Homeland Security's procurement officer is grilled in Congress on why federal agents who rarely fire weapons need several times more bullets annually than an Army officer. Who or what are they shooting at? Republican Rep. Jason Chaffetz on Thursday asked Nick Nayak, DHS' chief procurement officer, a question we and others have been asking: Why has the Department of Homeland Security been buying so much ammunition? Dismissed as a concern only of right-wing conspiracy theorists, the reported amounts as high as 2 billion rounds have varied and been explained not as a one-time purchase but a bulk buy...

Gun Control: Our future president in 2008 called for "a civilian national security force that's just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded" as the military. Should the "bitter-clingers" be worried? As Andrew Malcolm has noted on these pages, the Department of Homeland Security has been buying lots of ammo, enough by one calculation to fight the equivalent of a 24-year Iraqi War. Some have speculated about a link between the stockpiling between candidate Obama's off-prompter campaign remarks about a national security force and the stockpiling by DHS of more than 1.6 billion (with a 'b') bullets. DHS has...

The hearing itself was unusual, as questions about the department's ammunition purchases until recently had bubbled largely under the radar -- on blogs and in the occasional news article. But as the Department of Homeland Security found itself publicly defending the purchases, lawmakers gradually showed more interest in the issue. Democratic Rep. John Tierney, D-Mass., at the opening of the hearing, ridiculed the concerns as "conspiracy theories" which have "no place" in the committee room. But Republicans said the purchases raise "serious" questions about waste and accountability. Chaffetz, who chairs one of the House oversight subcommittees holding the hearing Thursday,...

Officials at the Department of Homeland Security denied Thursday that its large-scale ammunition purchases were an effort keep bullets out of the hands of private citizens. At a hearing on Capitol Hill Thursday, top DHS training officer Humberto Medina said he could "say categorically that was not a factor at all" in the purchases. He also noted that ammunition DHS purchased would be used for both operations and training purchases. The Associated Press reported in February that DHS was planning to buy more than 1.6 billion rounds over the next five years, a number that sparked fears of government stockpiling...

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) reserves the right to buy up to 750 million rounds of ammunition over the next five years and currently has “two years worth” of ammo on hand, or around 247 million rounds in its inventory, the department’s top procurement official said Thursday during congressional testimony. DHS has already purchased around 41 million rounds of ammunition this year alone, Nick Nayak, DHS’s chief procurement officer, said during an oversight hearing on Capitol Hill. Some $37 million in taxpayer dollars will be spent on the purchase of ammunition in the entirety of fiscal year 2013.

On Thursday, Border Patrol agents working in the El Centro (CA) border sector were told by email that they would not be receiving any practice rounds during the next three months. Townhall.com published that email: “Enforcement Personnel, Due to budget concerns and ammunition availability, we will not be getting issued any proficiency ammunition for next quarter. In addition to these reductions, we are also being limited to qualification ammo only. What this means to you is that you will not receive the normal 150 rounds for practice and we will not have any extra ammunition for a combat course following...