Levin: US preparing for societal collapse by buying up billions of rounds of ammo

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On Friday’s night broadcast of his radio show, Mark Levin speculated that the federal government is stockpiling ammunition to ensure the rule of law in the event of a total societal and economic collapse.

On Feb. 8, Investor’s Business Daily editorial writer Andrew Malcolm penned a piece about the Department of Homeland Security amassing what he called “sufficient firepower to shoot every American about five times –including illegal immigrants,” or more than 1.6 billion bullets.

“I’m going to tell you what I think is going on,” Levin said. “I don’t think insurrection. Law enforcement and national security agencies — they play out multiple scenarios. They simulate multiple scenarios. I’ll tell you what I think they’re simulating: the collapse of our financial system, the collapse of our society and the potential for widespread violence, looting, killing in the streets, because that’s what happens when an economy collapses.”

Audio and more at The Daily Caller

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The volume cited is what is required for routine target range shooting by some 100,000 gun-carrying federal law enforcement officers, and for a bit of prudent stockpiling owing to predictable shortages driven by increasing civilian demand. Levin should buy himself a pocket calculator.

Don’t these big totals actually reflect all federal, state, and local level procurements being made under the big DHS purchasing umbrella?

Really, Greg. 16,000 rounds of training ammo for each of 100,000 people? Really? Learn how to use your calculator, or better yet, get a flashlight so you can use it with your head firmly up your rear end. This is 24 years of the war in Iraq. This is for shooting Americans on American soil.

@Smarty, #3:

I performed the simple arithmetic around a week ago in another thread, but I’ll save you the inconvenience of clicking:

As of 2004, the total number of federal law enforcement officers who carry firearms was about 105,000. Let’s say they fire 100 rounds per month on the range, to maintain proficiency with their weapons. There are 12 months in a year.

105,000 x 100 x 12 = 126,000,000 rounds per year, just for routine use on firing ranges.

If someone relied on their firearm in their daily work, 25 shots on the range each week to keep an edge wouldn’t strike me as excessive. Does that seem unrealistic? I’m guessing a civilian shooting enthusiast might easily go through more than 25 rounds per week.

Law enforcement agencies are buying more than what is burned through each year on firing ranges: Law enforcement personnel are issued ammunition to carry on the job.

Purchase authorizations can cover periods of several years and probably are doing so at present, due to recent supply shortages driven by the spike in consumer purchases. Multiply 126,000,000 plus times 10 years, and you’re talking about authorizations to purchase over a billion and a quarter rounds.

If people want to believe crackpot conspiracy theories rather than entirely obvious and rational explanations, they’re certainly free to do so. I suppose it’s all a matter of personal preference.

126M is far from 1.6B, and you admit that you pulled these numbers of training rounds out of the air. This is a dozen years of training rounds using your math, not a logical purpose unless you plan on shutting factories down or shooting a lot of people. And your logic about buying in bulk now is asinine. Why buy in a sellers market?

Range time is using ball ammo, not the much more expensive hollow points. This sounds like using left over money, to avoid a cut in the next years budget. If you look at the supplier… This could be a bit of a political payback that ended up getting publicized.

@Ike, #6:

The matter of ball ammo vs. hollowpoint ammo was also covered previously. There are perfectly good reason for buying hollow points as a single, all purpose choice in bulk, even for range use:

Hollow point bullets punch a cleaner hole in paper targets than standard bullets. They make it much easier to precisely mark your hits, particularly after multiple rounds have been fired at the same target. Ball ammo will quickly tear a paper target up, especially with tightly placed shots.

Hollow point rounds also have greater stopping power with relatively low velocity handguns.

Both uses considered, this probably makes hollow point ammunition the most versatile single choice for federal law enforcement purposes.

Another consideration is a possible reduction in the likelihood of collateral damage: Hollow points quickly impart more of their energy to the target owing to their expansion or deformation. Consequently, they’re less likely to pass through a soft target and strike something behind it, less likely to pass through light walls still carrying most of their energy, and less likely to ricochet off hard surfaces still carrying most of their lethal energy.

I’m not sure about the cost difference. It might not be all that great, when a single product is purchased in very large volumes.

@Greg: Check out PMC Bronze 180 grain .40 FMJ-FP ammo. It does everything you say at a lower cost than hollowpoints. I reload my own .45 ACP ammo at half the price of factory rounds. A much better indicator of what is going on is how much ammo was purchased for practice in years past and seeing how many rounds per person it comes out to. That will give an indication as to whether or not this is abnormal. Your calculation of 25 rounds per week comes out to over 1,000 rounds per person per year. That is way more than the average individual in the military fires with the exception of SF and other combat arms folks. Given that a lot of these Feds are desk jockeys who really know little nor care about weapons training is another factor to consider.

I would love it if your (Greg) poor math, lack of first hand knowledge of firearms and ingenuity at trying to make this look normal were the right answer, but sadly, it is the viewpoint that is actually just not logical. The hole in the paper theory of why to target shoot with hollowpoints is just over the top, not being sure about the cost difference (while using cost as an argument) and the rest of it is just BS. I would love to be the crazy one, but I really don’t think so. You sound like a person on a sinking ship saying “everything will be OK” even though you have no special information, training or experience.

I wrote a letter to my Senator and Representative asking for information about this; why is it going on and where is the funding coming from? I got a detailed reply from Representative Michael Burgess saying the purchases are normal; that the DHS has the responsibility for making ammunition purchases for several entities, including the Coast Guard.

Still seems like a lot of ammo, though. I have yet to follow up with the question I have as to how many different calibers are being purchased?

@Aye:

What- no stinging insult to Mark Levin?

@drjohn:

Levin was foolish enough to fall for the same Alex Jones based incestuous source loop that you and Andrew Malcolm did.

What more needs to be said?

@Aye: That’s my boy

Really, the coast guard burns through that much .40?
Remember, this is enough for 24 years of the Iraq war, it is not crazy to be suspicious of this gun-grabbing King Hussain.

@Smarty, #9:

You’re calling the math in post #4 wrong without showing what’s incorrect about it, and denying the validity of each point in post #7 without specifically addressing any of them.

I generally tend to go with the most reasonable, common-sense explanations of things. Levin’s speculations fall into the category of conspiracy theory.

MARK LEVINE HAS MORE THAN A POINT THERE, AND HE IS A CREDIBLE PERSON,
one thing I notice is if the CONSERVATIVES GET SUSPICIOUS,
THAT IS A GOOD ENOUGH SIGN FOR ME TO BE ALSO SUSPICIOUS,
HELL THEY HAVE MORE THAN THE ARMY WORKING FOR OBAMA IN THE WHITE HOUSE, AND ALL ON UNIONS FEES.
HOW MANY WEAPONS IS THERE IN THE WHITE HOUSE ALONE?
HOW MANY WORK IN EACH AGENCY, HOW MANY GUARDS IN THERE,
GOOD QUESTIONS WHEN YOU HEAR OF THEM BUYING SO MUCH WEAPONS AND BULLETS
AND WHY NOW? PLUS HIS BOOK OF WARRIORS NAMES AND ADRESS IN ALL OVER THE STATES, REVEAL ONLY LAST WEEK

What’s “reasonable & common-sense” about stockpiling enough ammunition on U.S. soil for 24 years of Iraq war or for that matter conducting practice drills with helicopters and automatic weapons over Houston and Miami? If Republicrats were in the White House the Progs would find nothing common-sense about either of these facts.
So, why do you trolls inhabit this web site and whose directives are you following?

Smarty
hi,
and do we forget that the cost never was an issue
to OBAMA big reckless spender,
so their answer don’t pass go,
bye

coldeadhands
hi, how about they are freaken scare of the gun owners, the most intelligent ,
tolerant and law abiding citizens,
and feel the time is ready for them to use this gun control
and one blogger mentioned that the ;; national registry they want should not be done
and dangerous for the control they will cease with it,
so to go on with my scenario ,I had read on a very credible blog the ten laws of MARXIST
AND IT LOOK CLEARER NOW THE 10TH LAW IS TO BE PERSUE,
BECAUSE HE FOLLOWED THE OTHER PREVIOUS 9TH ALREADY, AND THE LAST ONE IS A TOTAL CONTROL
AND SOMEONE WENT FURTHER BUT I FOUND IT ALSO POSSIBLE FROM WHAT WE ARE SEEING,
THAT HIS TOTAL CONTROL WILL BE SUPPORTED AND HELP BY FOREIGNER BROTHERS, WHICH HAVE THE CRESCENT, WAITING
FOR THE CALL TO BE JOIN AND BECOME THE CIRCLE THEY ARE AIMING AT, AND ALSO HIS UNIONS THUGS LEAN TO COMMUNIST GLOBALY, THE MANY EMPLOYED IN THE GOVERNMENT
AND THE UN ENTERING AS VICTORIOUS TAKING CONTROL ON AN AMERICA TOLERANT WAITING FOR A COUNTERACTING LEADER TAKING THE FLAG FOR AMERICA
TO ASSUME THE NEW COMMAND AND STRATEGY TO GET THE PEOPLE ON THE MOVE WHICH WILL
HAVE TO BE SWIFLY DONE AND VERY DIFFICULT BECAUSE OF ALL THEIR LOYAL DEVILS WILL MIX WITH THE PEOPLE, THE REAL PEOPLE OF AMERICA. WHICH WILL NEED TO DISCERN THE TRAITORS AMONG THE PEOPLE,
A VERY TRICKY TASK,
BYE
WE MUST THINK OF WHAT WOULD WE DO IF A SIMILAR EVENT COME AND EACH PREPARE FOR THE WORSE CASE ,
WE HOPE WON’T HAPPEN, WE MUST GET THE AWARENESS
OF IT

Blessings to you Bees. You nailed it.

@coldeadhands, #17:

What about the points made in posts #4 and #7?

troll “Cyber-Warriors for Obama”

coldeadhands
I think you are right on this one ,

coldeadhands
you know , in my scenario I overlook the black helicopters,we have guns but no
launchrocket, how do we deal with them,
just saying
bye