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« Issa's committee sues Holder | Main | When is a felon not a felon? »

Now, this is strange

Posted by David Hardy · 14 August 2012 02:40 PM

The National Weather Service is out to buy 46,000 rounds of .40 hollowpoint plus 6,000 rounds in frangible. Do they figure people are getting that upset about their forecasts?

12 Comments | Leave a comment

Critic | August 14, 2012 4:21 PM | Reply

It is said they run some ocean going game wardens on fishing boats.

Harold | August 14, 2012 4:58 PM | Reply

As I'm saying, Don't Panic, it's the Fish Police, the "Location: National Weather Service" is claimed to be a clerical error. Which I believe:

Every delivery location is on a coast; with the exception of Wall, NJ they're all places I recognize as fishing areas.

To take the first one:

8,000 rounds to: Ross Lane DOC, NOAA, NMFS, OLE, NED, 130 Oak Street, Suite 5, Ellsworth, ME, 04605

  • DOC: Department of Commerce
  • NOAA: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
  • NMFS: National Marine Fisheries Service
  • OLE: Office of Law Enforcement

Their home page.

Sarah | August 15, 2012 5:07 AM | Reply

“Tornado Hunting” takes on a fun new meaning. Oh, come on, someone had to say it.

Jim K | August 15, 2012 7:31 AM | Reply

Update on the story - http://www.businessinsider.com/this-is-why-the-noaa-supposedly-ordered-46000-rounds-of-ammunition-2012-8

Harold | August 15, 2012 11:02 AM | Reply

And if you do the math, this is 900 rounds short of exactly 1/2 of a year's budget worth of ammo, which is rough since it includes instructors and all the usual randomness. With a response date of the 21st and the bids must be good for 30 days, they're just spending end of federal fiscal year budget.

Jim D. | August 15, 2012 7:03 PM | Reply

200-500 rounds is a decent training day. 1,000-2,000 rounds is a good course of fire for one person.

Instead of lambasting the government for buying ammo, let's celebrate and argue we should be able to match their commitment. Let's tell the world this behavior is not abnormal or at all strange, but typical for an average American. Make the Brady Campaign deny it.

I personally would like to shoot 10,000 rounds a year through each platform: handgun, rifle and shotgun -- just because I'm a hobbyiest and I enjoy it!

George | August 16, 2012 3:53 AM | Reply

Sounds like a fun weekend. If they are running low, I might be able to lend them some. A local small gun store said that they have already sold over $1/2 Million of ammo this year. A local gun range stopped having Sunday Summer special event, pin/plate, 2X4 and other type of matches,because the range was too busy. And this is in NY!

K | August 16, 2012 5:02 AM | Reply

Time for belt tightening if this is training ammo for the government. Time for the government to shoot inexpensive FMJ ball ammo at the range instead of expensive hollow points and save some money like everybody else does.

Harold | August 16, 2012 8:17 AM | Reply

K: there's a lot to be said for practicing with your service ammo and making sure FMJ never accidentally gets used in service, and doing all that would cost money too. The annual numbers are small enough it's not a huge of money, especially since they're buying in bulk.

Looking at Natchez Shooting Supply current prices, Hornady 180 gr .40 HP bullets are only 1/3 more than FMJ in quantity 100 each, Remington prices are much closer, Winchester less than a dollar apart for quantity 100 (hovering around $25). I bet our perceptions of HP vs. FMJ prices are skewed from the era when manufacturing was a much bigger component of the price than the base metals, plus of course the now mostly used up Cold War stocks of surplus ammo, which would have depressed natural FMJ prices.

PaulP | August 16, 2012 9:22 AM | Reply

Actually I had a very nice e-mail exchange with Ron Jones the Chief Information Officer at NOAA, and they have indeed put out the appropriate corrections. The Nat'l Marine Fisheries Service apparently occasionally run into drug traffic types etc, and need to be armed.

Sounds about right to me.

PaulP

Jim | August 16, 2012 1:45 PM | Reply

Hm, they got you all distracted. Everyone is so busy questioning the expense of the ammo that that we forgot to question the need for the people who are going to shoot it. Does the US really, really need so much federal law enforcement?

Harold | August 17, 2012 8:03 AM | Reply

Does the US really, really need so much federal law enforcement?

But that's not the question we're discussing in this topic; I'm sure most of us believe the answer to your question is "NO!".

The question originally was, do the Weathermen, that is, the National Weather Service (NWS) need armed agents? The answer to that was also no, and in more detail a minor clerical error in the summary of a solicitation sent us on this wild goose chase, and the people getting the ammo really do need it and this purchase makes sense in every way we can determine (FMJ vs. JHP for training is a debatable point, but either choice "makes sense").

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