So we can´t have any!

I´d say the Feds know something very bad is coming.

Ammunition manufacturers are on the front lines in defending our Second Ammendment right. They should refuse to fill these orders- even as an act of civil disobedience, if needs be.

FTA: "That´s sufficient firepower to shoot every American about five times. Including illegal immigrants."

In China they would only order one bullet per citizen. Maybe they still see us as moving targets.

When this first came up last year, it really was a big nothing burger. By law, fed agencies must practice with the rounds they use, expensive hollowpoints, rather than cheaper ball ammo. When divided among the many agencies, the quantities weren´t really unusual. Now, however, this is getting troubling. They no longer need these quantities. They already did that last year. Ammo is very scarce right now. Could be some kind of plot, but to what end?

I´m still reeling from Barky´s lecture at the prayer breakfast.

He appears to actually believe that the only imperfection in his world is an obstinate Republican Party in the House.

The most heinous crimes are committed by those who see themselves as victims.

(LA´s cop murderer eg.)

And Barky exhibits delusional paranoia in spades.

(Is it OK to say spades?)

I find this quite frightening. Yes, why would the social security administration need the big purchase of hollow point ammo they bought. This is about the third round of ammo purchase for homeland security. 0bama should explain this need to purchase so many bullets. Right now, 0bama has stock piled enough ammo to kill every man, woman, and child, four times.

It´s for the zombie apocalypse.

Seriously, the bullets are for us. To be delivered at, what, 1,000 feet per second?

And just who is going to do all the shooting? Janet? ValJar? Zero? Are they counting on the military to shoot us? Are they going to give every federal employee a handful of bullets and say, "Go get ´em?" Lefties are really stupid.

Re: "According to one estimate, just since last spring DHS has stockpiled more than 1.6 billion bullets, mainly .40 caliber and 9mm. That´s sufficient firepower to shoot every American about five times. Including illegal immigrants. To provide some perspective, experts estimate that at the peak of the Iraq war American troops were firing around 5.5 million rounds per month. At that rate, DHS is armed now for a 24-year Iraq war."

There may be well-connected Obama donors who manufacture ammo and/or hold copper/brass contracts. Think Solyndra and the $500 million to Obama donors. Or, is Obama conducting another Fast & Furious operation with drug gangs. Or, Obama is draining away bullets from private buyers. Or, like the first Mayor Daley of Chicago who secretly owned an office supply company in Indiana that had a monopoly on the City´s supplies, Obama owns an ammunition maker.

I do not believe the US military uses many .40 caliber or 9mm bullets, so this is eventual waste.

The big question mark for me is that this is handgun ammo, and not even magnum velocity. It is only good at fairly close range, and hollow points do not penetrate well. A rifleman would have little trouble neutralizing such a threat with little risk.

Het #9, the answer is the union thugs and selected minority groups. They will be deputized and given arms and orders. Count on it.

Who are the ammo suppliers? Are they in the Obama contributions pocket? Is US gov money going to buy bullets they don´t need so these/this company will make a lot of money and launder some of it back to Obama?

The feds are gearing up for when the American public finally wakes up and figures out how badly we´ve been screwed by our elected criminals on both sides of the aisle. We have the most radical President in our history and we Americans are probably more divided than at any time since the Civil War. Obama would love to exploit this tragic mess that has become the USA of today. The gun grab that the Communists are trying to pull off just could be the spark that sets off the powder keg.

Read ths article yesterday and fired off a letter to Boehner asking exactly why they are purchasing so many rounds of ammo including hollow points. Demanded to know why NOBODY is doing anything about the tyranny that is being hoisted upon us by this group of communists. Let him know that we are fed up being treated like criminals when illegals and terrorists enjoy being treated like full fledged American ctizens. Ended by telling him I hope I didn´t end up on Odumbo´s kill list after sending him my thoughts. I´m sure his little cyber-commie gang is trying to trace my username at this moment to which I salute them with the middle finger!

Most common ammo cartridges are gone from store shelves. No this is not puzzling, rather this is an act of federal aggression against the people of the United States.

I´m so glad the Republicans are in there fighting against this... oh no, wait... the Republicans are not doing a stinking thing to defend freedom. Wow! That´s a shocker!

Read the article in the Must Reads this morning - the one about DHS Insider - it´s all there.

Occam´s Razor says #1 is correct.

Well they supplied arms to the Mexican drug cartel it´s only natural to provide product support. Sorry, wrong ammo I know.

We were told to expect a parallel federal civilian police entity funded as well as the military, could be a sign of a campaign promise kept. Next time we are asked to respond to the question regarding why we need semi-auto large capacity magazine arms, here you go.

#13 asks a good question, who are the suppliers?

At the gun show here in Chantilly, VA last month, George Arms was missing. Their inventory has been completely depleted. Their website is still saying they are running two-four weeks behind on shipping. I´d like to know if their (and other´s) supplier is the same one as the Federal Government. There´s another gun show coming up this weekend. I wonder if Georgia Arms will be there, but I doubt it. It´s the probably the largest vendor of ammunition at the gun show.

Over 1.6 billion rounds? For what reason? Where is the precedent for such enormous ammunition purchases? To my knowledge the GOP leadership hasn´t reqested an explanation. The mainstream press certainly hasn´t. Not even Fox News. No one seems to care.

The big question is whether the ammo is hollow or slugs. Civilians are not allowed to have hollow.

Clinton also alluded to a need for a civilian federal police force.

If you are in Washington looking at another million man march (all armed), you want lots of ammo.

Tax payers will be shot with the bullets they paid for. It has come to this.

Obama says we don´t need guns. Why does he need them? If Obama thinks he is loved, why all the bodyguards?

#9 brings up a good point ... who is Obama going to arm and then send out to sanction conservatives? Several theories abound from an all Black ´Brown Shirt´ organization (Black Panthers? SLA?) to special forces recruited from the military.

Race-based organizations don´t have the numbers to exterminate a large number of people. If Obama gave every black adult from DC to Pennsylvania a weapon and a hundred rounds and assuming a 3-1 attrition rate, they would be out of shooters by the Allegheny Mts.

Drones are another matter ...

Government is driving up prices by causing a shortage.
You cannot afford the ammo or at the least, you will not be able to buy as much. They are just trying to make it unavailable to Bubba.
Congress has the purse strings, they could stop it if they felt enough heat.
Think about.

The law of supply and demand at work. By artificially creating a shortage, the price goes up. This is a TAX IN DISGUISE.

The manufacturers are also aware of the second level effects. Normally, higher prices signal a need for more manufacturing capacity.

However, adding capacity raised costs in the short run [higher costs = higher prices AGAIN].

Worse, the manufacturers know that this is an ARTIFICIAL shortage. If they add capacity to meet the current demand [both real and artificial], with the added costs, they would have too MUCH capacity if the government sold their surplus. They would get whipsawed in the other direction.

Thus, the manufactures are reluctant to add capacity to take care of the real demand. The only people to get hurt in the meantime is the people.

"... why do they need so many bullets?"

For the same reason the Big Bad Wolf needs so many teeth -- the better to eat us all up.

If any Citizen were to start stockpiling ammo in the thousands range, the FBI, ATF, DHS and other Federal Agencies would swoop down with raids and consficate ammo and firearms and state this person was trying to over throw the Government.

Why isn´t Congress alerted that HHS is going to over throw the Government. Our representatives need to be alert and protect us from the rogue government agencies.

Todd Schnitt (out of Tampa) asked people to call in yesterday telling if they were able to buy ammunition where they were. All callers said there was little or none available. One caller from NC said he went to a gun show, got there 3 hours early to get a good place in line and when he got there, hundreds of people were already lined up. When he got inside and went to a specific vendor, nothing to buy.

I agree with many of the above comments. I also think there is an agenda of the government to hoard bullets by the millions creating a shortage of ammunition for common pistol rounds making ammunition more expensive for citizens to purchase.

Hence you have a government stockpiling ammunition intentionally creating a supply and demand shortage, ammunition prices goes up and are way, WAY overly inflated creating intentional limitations what citizens can purchase because of price and/or availability.

The regime hates America, hates Americans, and thrives by spreading fear. Seems that billions in ammo would fulfill all 3 of these penchants.

Big Sis may be willing to murder innocent Americans, which will include children, yet she has aspirations to be the next potus. What kind of a sick regime are we living under?

#22, color me puzzled. Maybe it´s a state law where you are but hollow points are not prohibited to civilians. I´ve got quite a few. They´re a tad more expensive (when I could easily find them) than the normal round nose, etc.

All interesting comments, but it´s nailed right at the start by #1. It´s effectively a gun ban, for what good is your gun without ammo? And as many posters pointed out, it´s real hard to find ammo right now. Buy it when you can.

Re: #10 "I do not believe the US military uses many .40 caliber or 9mm bullets, so this is eventual waste."

Don´t overlook the fact that DHS is also purchasing another 7,000 fully automatic assault rifles? (just Google it)

And don´t forget about Obama´s stated intent to build a "civilian national security force that´s just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded" as the standing military.

It is clear that these weapons and the 1.6 billion rounds of ammo aren´t intended for use by the military in foreign wars. They are to arm the "civilian national security force" for use against Bitter-Clingers.

Or maybe Obama expects a cross-border invasion by the Canadian French.

Many reasons, but they are trying to corner the market so WE can´t get any.

Where is all this ammo being stored? I tried to do some crude calcuations based on the size of a 50 round box of .40 or .38 caliber bullets, and seems like 1,600,000,000 rounds would take up a huge amount of space.

Re#5: "By law, fed agencies must practice with the rounds they use, expensive hollowpoints, rather than cheaper ball ammo."

I am not saying you are wrong, but I would be interested in knowing the statute which directs federal agencies to practice with only expensive duty ammunition. Could you perhaps cite that statute? Thanks.

Post 39, I read how many 18 wheelers would be required to store 1.6 billion rounds. It was a stunning number but I cannot remember it.

Even her in the People´s Republic of Maryland, I was able to buy .357 hollow points.

Remember when Obama first took office..he talked about his private army...called Green Shirts.

Stupid liberals are dangerous! Lets hope they can´t shoot strait!

Very simple explanation. They are making the most popular rounds scarce so that everyone will have to go out and buy more. Once the gun shops start taking down the names of those purchasing the rounds, they will not only have the names of all gun owners, they will know what types of weapons they have because of the caliber. Very sneaky!

Well. it´s got to be stored somewhere.
And I have to admit, the federal militia force seems the most likely end user.

#22 must live in New Jersey.

The price of simple, full-metal-jacket, 9mm ammunition has gone up by 400% since last year -- and that´s if you can find any to buy!

Has anyone seen the government do anything that is sane?

Well, here´s what the NRA has to say about it:
http://www.nraila.org/news-issues/articles/2012/federal-law-enforcement-agencies-buy-ammunition.aspx

I heard about this one guy who started buying precious metals when Obama was first elected. He would buy a box or two or three every month for a quite a few years and the first thing you know, he´s RICH.!

The marxists in the government can be can be called a lot of things but stupid isn´t one of them. They know as well as we do that they have imposed tyranny on us. So they are gearing up for civil war just as we are. That lame excuse that the rounds wrer just for tsrget practice is rediculous. Hollow points are antipesonel use only. Personally I like the 30.06 fired from a battle rifle.