US Postal service needs ammunition now?

In a genius move worthy of Einstein, the US Postal Service has let it be known that they are seeking to purchase large lots of ammunition.

Add the U.S. Postal Service to the list of federal agencies seeking to purchase what some Second Amendment activists say are alarmingly large quantities of ammunition.

Earlier this year, the USPS posted a notice on its website, under the heading "Assorted Small Arms Ammunition," that says: "The United States Postal Service intends to solicit proposals for assorted small arms ammunition. If your organization wishes to participate, you must pre-register. This message is only a notification of our intent to solicit proposals."

Alan Gottlieb, chairman of the Washington-based Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, said: "We're seeing a highly unusual amount of ammunition being bought by the federal agencies over a fairly short period of time. To be honest, I don't understand why the federal government is buying so much at this time."

Presumably this was written a while ago, even though it was posted at Newsmax today, April 15th 2014. Because now we know why. The government of the USA is very, very afraid of the -people- of the USA. The Powers That Be have decided that the policies they wish to pursue will most likely be violently resisted by the general populace, and they are taking steps to see that they can manage that resistance.

Example, obviously, the Bundy Ranch in Nevada. The BLM and the EPA have been squeezing out ranchers all across the South West states these last 20 years without incident, so now all that's left are the serious ones, the stubborn ones, the die hard sons of bitches who just won't quit.

In the pre-Internet age, all these ammunition purchases and ranch closures would have gone unremarked. 200 cops could roll up to the Bundy place, arrest the lot of them and kill all their cattle, the most that would be seen in the media would be the notice of lawsuit published in the local paper when Bundy tried to recover his losses. Or his estate did, more likely.

Now, 200 cops roll up and a thousand armed yahoos spring from the ground, as if Bundy had sown the dragon's teeth. Obviously the next thing that's going to happen is the cops will black-out phone and internet service to locations they are going to raid. We will have to see how that plays out. Not well, I expect.

Here's another blast from the past from Newsmax, just to illustrate what's going on with the whole firearm supply chain in the USA. EPA closes the last lead smelting plant in America.

The closure of the last lead smelter plant in America due to tightened Environmental Protection Agency rules will have an impact on ammunition supplies and costs, according to Gun Owners of America.

And it will leave nearly 220 people who worked directly or indirectly for the plant seeking new jobs.

In an interview with Newsmax, GOA legislative counsel Mike Hammond said the shuttering of Doe Run Company's Herculaneum lead smelter plant "won't shut off the production of bullets in America because [manufacturers] can get recycled lead from a lot of other plants.

"But combined with the government's large purchases of ammunition, it will make it harder and more expensive to purchase ammunition," Hammond said.

Some Second Amendment supporters see sinister motives on the part of the federal government in tightening the smelting regulations.

Former Rep. Allen West, a Florida Republican, put a statement on his website about the Doe Run plant closure, calling it a "back-door gun control" move on the part of the Obama administration and the EPA to tighten ammunition supplies.

Of interest here is less the effect on lead supplies in the USA than the effect of EPA regulations on an entire industry. EPA has made it impossible to economically derive lead metal from ore in the United States. I point out that lead smelters operate in Canada quite happily, with no massive ecological disasters resulting from their activities. People requiring certain types of lead are now obliged to buy it from Canada or China, or some other country.

EPA is doing the same thing to coal mines and coal fired electric generating stations. EPA is doing the same thing to farmers in California. EPA is about to begin doing the same thing to oil drillers in the Dakotas. Other federal agencies are doing it to other industries all over the USA.

By contrast, the US Border Patrol has effectively ceased patrolling the southern border and thousands of Mexicans, Guatemalans and people from all over South America are pretty much crossing into the USA at will. The Border Patrol seems to prefer the northern border with Canada, where they intimidate and harass Canadians trying to spend money in American border cities like Buffalo.

In other news, guns and ammunition are flying off the shelves all over the USA. New record for sales every other month it seems. Biggest problem retailers have is having to wait for more stock.

Taken all together, this is somewhat troubling.

The Phantom