Police ammoPolice departments report difficulties buying ammo

Police departments report difficulty obtaining needed ammunition // Source: news.cn

Local law enforcement agencies around the country are finding it hard to buy ammo these days. The shortage is in part due to gun owners stocking up on bullets due to concerns about new gun laws at the federal and state levels.

Fox New reports that contributing to the ammo shortage  the DHS  plan  to buy more than 1.6 billion bullets for training pursposes in the next four or five years, which could make matter worse. One official said that citizens are “panic-buying” due to the fact that lawmakers are rallying to draft new legislation as a result of public shootings that have taken place in Colorado and Connecticut.

The Hamilton County Sheriff’s Department in Tennessee says that officers will now be given less ammo when shooting at the range.

“The concern over firearms availability and ammunition availability and potentials of gun control certainly has impacted the availability of ammunition purchased locally,” training coordinator Jody Mays told WDEF.

Rollingwood Police Chief Dayne Pryor told MyFoxAustin that officers who are trying to order new AR-15s and ammunition have been told to expect wait times before receiving their orders.

“We have adequate supplies right now, but we’re limited to how often we can go to the firing range to train because we want to be conservative right now,” Pryor said.

While all these agencies are scrambling to find ammo, DHS is buying in bulk — and Representative Timothy Huelskanp (R-Kansas) wants to know why. He  says he still has not heard from DHS secretary Janet Napolitano on why the department is loading up.

The Federal Law Enforcement Training Center in Glynco, Georgia and other training facilities across the country which are run by DHS use up to fifteen million rounds per year, most of which are used at shooting ranges and in training exercises.

This is not the first time a government agency’s ammo buy has raised questions. Last year the Social Security Administration posted a notice online saying that it was buying 174,000 hallow point bullets.