UPDATE: Via Business Insider, my posit that this was a typo is confirmed. See below.
At first I didn’t believe this, but there it is on the Federal bids page, screencap and link below. See the screencaps for an explantion. – Anthony
Via Drudge and Infowars:
National Weather Service Follows DHS In Huge Ammo Purchase
Hollow point bullets designed to cause maximum organ damage
Paul Joseph Watson
Infowars.com
Tuesday, August 14, 2012
Why would the National Weather Service need to purchase large quantities of powerful ammo? That’s the question many are asking after the federal agency followed in the footsteps of the Department of Homeland Security in putting out a solicitation for 46,000 rounds of hollow point bullets.
A solicitation which appears on the FedBizOpps website asks for 16,000 rounds of .40 S&W jacketed hollow point (JHP) bullets, noted for their strength, to be delivered to locations in Ellsworth, Maine, and New Bedford, Mass.
A further 6,000 rounds of S&W JHP will be sent to Wall, New Jersey, with another 24,000 rounds of the same bullets heading to the weather station in St. Petersburg, Florida.
The solicitation also asks for 500 paper targets to be delivered to the same locations in Maine, Massachusetts and New Jersey.
The National Weather Service is is one of six scientific agencies that make up the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
The solicitation requires a response by August 21.
=================================================================
At first I thought maybe this was for bear/elk protection of technicians when they go to service some of those remote weather stations in the Maine woods. The bid solicitation has the Marine Fisheries Service listed as the buyer. NOAA does have game wardens for commercial ocean fishing and game fishing, but why would they route it through the National Weather Service, which has no such programs? This is either a typo, or one of those convoluted government tree structures.
===============================================================
UPDATE: Business Insider, who reported on the issue last night, has the story (h/t to WUWT reader Timothy Ray Erney). As I noted above, it was a typo.
We talked to Scott Smullen, the Deputy Director of NOAA Communications & External Affairs who says the announcement is a mistake and is apparently being corrected at the time of this writing.
From Scott’s email:
Due to a clerical error in the federal business vendor process, a solicitation for ammunition and targets for the NOAA Fisheries Office of Law Enforcement mistakenly identified NOAA’s National Weather Service as the requesting office. The error is being fixed and will soon appear correctly in the electronic federal bidding system. The ammunition is standard issue for many law enforcement agencies and it will be used by 63 NOAA enforcement personnel in their firearms qualifications and training.
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All of the employees mentioned in the RFP are listed as criminal investigators for NOAA. https://nsd.rdc.noaa.gov/nsd/results
Oops. Correct link: https://nsd.rdc.noaa.gov/nsd/search
JonasM says:
August 14, 2012 at 9:16 am
“Hollow points are the preferred self-defense round by both civilians and law enforcement, primarily because of their stopping power, and because the chances of overpenetration and subsequent harm to an innocent party are greatly reduced. The fact that they ordered hollow points is not noteworthy in and of itself.”
True enough, but what happens when the “innocent party” is the target?
The link in the original solicitation takes you here
https://marketplace.fedbid.com/fbweb/fbobuyDetails.do?token=%3D%3DwBKxmaVGYR92ezk3E3ONEvQAAAAAHeAAgAgTFCGg%2FFzzqQbJAAyVXBA0Or
where the buyer is now listed as DOC NOAA-National Marine Fisheries Service
This is to fight global warming
Security? Maybe our weather guys need protection from terrorists. 😉
Let the paranoia begin.
Pirates, mebbe?
Not generally – other than making sure that your firearm properly feeds the JHP brand that you plan on using, for training, use what’s reliable and cheapest. The difference between JHP and FMJ is negligible for training purposes.
Rob Crawford says:
August 14, 2012 at 9:11 am
“Meh. 16,000 rounds?”
Rob’s right. My friends and I (<10 people) go out on 3-day weekends and shoot every piece of cardboard and clay we can bring. It's fun! But thousands of rounds disappear every day. We are constantly changing some aspect of our firearms, and that requires recalibration – then just fun bruising our shoulders. We give up after we're burned up by the desert sun, smelly, exhausted and bruised. We take home 20k rounds that we thought we could shoot. (As well as a lot of trash from previous campers.)
Wad cutters are for the firing range, not plinking.
Like others mentioned this is NOT what you think. The bid is through NWS bid process, but is specifically for the National Marine Fisheries Service. NMFS does have a law enforcement function.
If as they say they are trying to spend their budget for the year I have to ask WHY? It is tax payers money wouldn’t it be nice if you didn’t spend your budget and sent the remainder back to the treasury so the national debt did not grow quite so fast.
What others have said. Hollow-points are considerably more expensive than copper-jacketed. Normally HP is used for self-defense since it won’t easily pass through whatever you’re shooting at and hurt a bystander.
I use about 120 rounds of HP a year just to keep fresh ammo loaded. I also usually shoot out about 300-900 rounds of FMJ a years just to keep in practice. As far as I know, this is about normal for the average citizens who carry. Some shoot a lot more, but those that shoot less probably shouldn’t carry at all.
I would expect law enforcemnet officers to practice more, but not with HP.
Well I’m betting the Polar Bear population will be taking another dive in the near future, further proof of global warming.
JonasM says:
August 14, 2012 at 9:34 am
I stand corrected on the NOAA having a need for ammo – they apparently do have staff that are normally armed. This is a non-story. Other than possibly wasting money on expensive JHP for target practice.
_________________________
Practice with what you intend to carry/shoot.
This isn’t a story to worry about.
The real story to worry about is why the DHS needs 450 million pistol and 200 million+ 5.56 rifle rounds.
Higher ammo prices related to shortages brought on by the war efforts and by the massive stockpiling by US citizens following the 2008 elections had eased for awhile in 2011 and early 2012, but are heading skyward, again. .223 rounds (AR-15) at one of the nation’s leading discounters were $300/1000 rds. with free shipping early this year, but are now $350/1000 rds. + shipping, a nearly 25% increase.
Too many Polar Bears?
NWS: “When good weather goes bad… We’ll be ready”
Anthony,
This was a mistake by the original publication. The NWS had nothing to do with the purchase. It was entirely for the NOAA Nat’l Fisheries Service Office of Law Enforcement. I’m not sure how that got screwed up.
Lee Crowley
REPLY: That’s why I said it might be a typo. – Anthony
Getting ready for the planned coup..
Working on a smaller screen here and somehow missed the last bit in the original post above to the Fisheries doc and posted it here only to see it not show up: THANKS to the moderator for catching that. (Blush.) It does reasonably point to your statement about the ‘convoluted government tree structures’ and in that context makes the purchase plausible.
Ron in Austin:
From the 1970’s until sometime in the late 1990s (I forget the exact year), the Air Force trained in the M16 with .22 caliber rim-fire ammo rather than the .223 combat round. The only reason they quit was the .22 caliber jammed all the time and was ruining the weapons. They were a lot cheaper though until we had to replace the receivers in the weapons way earlier than we should have. The brass realized that the cost was a wash, and ordered training to proceed with .223 rounds in the weapons. The weapons shot truer too. I was guessing somewhat on the .22 but the .223 always went where I was aiming. (Of course they made the shooting course a bit harder too. Missed expert one time because I lost track of which target I was on and put three rounds in the same target.)
Bob Tisdale says:
August 14, 2012 at 9:10 am
The chipmunks near the weather stations can be dangerous when provoked.
Russian killer squirrel squads are far more dangerous:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/4489792.stm
Focus on the title: National Weather Service Follows DHS In Huge Ammo Purchase!! The NWS is following the DHS but we don’t know why the billion rounds are being purchased and who is intended to use them. Does anybody know about planned or even unplanned civil unrest…I don’t!! Seems rather paranoid at the very least, but certainly should be monitored.
The 130 Oak Street address in Ellsworth ME (see link above John West says: August 14, 2012 at 9:42 am) looks to be a fairly recent (since the street view show’s construction) small office building with the following occupants as seen on the left side of the page:
AAA Insurance
Blue Hill Accounting LLC
Fiona Young Massage Therapy
Hewins Travel
National Marine Fisheries
Natural Resources Conservation
US Consolidated Farm Services Agncy
US Customs Services
I see the National Marine Fisheries looking very conspicuous since it was mentioned above (and in the #5 position on the list too)
As hollow point is more expensive than standard ammo, I still don’t understand why they would use that ammo for training unless it is a safety issue (less likely to penetrate body armor).
I’m going along with those thinking the ammo and pistols are for guards at the new surface stations to keep anyone trying to monitor those stations away. Of course the purchases could be for those personnel who indulge in practical pistol competition, and those personnel were hoping the purchase would fly under the radar. Or it could be for the killer chipmunks.