Got ammunition? You might want to hold onto it…

Have you tried to buy ammo lately? It’s becoming more scarce than an honest Liberal.

Here’s a few news stories making the rounds today:

DHS To Buy 360,000 More Rounds of Hollow Point Ammunition

While the Department of Homeland Security continues to ignore members of Congress demanding to know why the federal agency is engaged in an apparent arms build-up, the DHS has just announced it plans to purchase another 360,000 rounds of hollow point ammunition to add to the roughly 2 billion bullets already bought over the past year.

A solicitation on the Federal Business Opportunities website details the DHS’ plan to purchase 360,000 rounds of “Commercial leaded training ammo (CLTA) Pistol .40 caliber 165 grain, jacketed hollow point.” The bullets are to be delivered to the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center in Artesia, New Mexico, the same destination for 240,000 hollow point rounds which were only purchased last month.

DHS Denies Massive Ammunition Purchase

The Department of Homeland Security responded Friday to questions from Rep. Tim Huelskamp, R-Kan., about why the agency was allegedly planning to buy some 1.6 billion rounds of ammunition over the next five years.

DHS told Whispers it regularly fills all of its goods and services requirements at one time because it’s cheaper for the agency, and that the 1.6 billion number was misleading because the language of DHS’s purchase said it would need “up to” a certain amount.

The run on ammo by the feds has increased the run of ammo in the civilian world, too. It sure looks like DHS is gearing up for war with somebody. And the most likely target of their aggression would be US citizens. Which is part of why we’re stockpiling, too.

But this has led to a shortage of ammo for some law enforcement agencies:

Local law enforcement face ammo shortage as gun owners, DHS stock up

Local law enforcement agencies across the country are facing an ammo shortage, as gun owners concerned about new laws at the federal and state level stock up on firearms and bullets.

At the same time, the Department of Homeland Security has said it wants to buy more than 1.6 billion rounds of ammunition in the next four or five years — which could put further strain on the supply.

The shortage, coupled with an increase in prices, comes as many gun owners head to the stores in anticipation of new gun control laws. States like Colorado and New York have already approved such legislation, while Democrats move toward bringing a bill to the Senate floor. At the moment, the congressional bill does not include an assault-weapons ban, but a ban is expected to be floated as an amendment.

But for some — gun and ammunition manufacturers and retailers — the news has been good:

Guns and ammo sales spark jobs boom

Guns and ammo are selling briskly these days, and that means weapons makers are hiring. Some manufacturers are scrambling to find enough workers.

Mike Weddle, head of maintenance at Dynamic Research Technologies, an ammunition manufacturer in Albany, Mo., says he is adding 10 new hires to his staff of 35. DRT’s machine operators make between $10 and $17 an hour — a healthy paycheck in a region where it’s tough to find a job and the cost of living is relatively low.

DRT currently cranks out 80,000 bullets per shift and operates two shifts per day. But that’s not enough to meet demand. So Weddle is adding a third manufacturing shift and building an additional facility.

“Demand picked up a year ago — it quadrupled,” he said. “It just went crazy.” He says .223 caliber ammo, which is for semiautomatic rifles, is particularly difficult to keep in stock.

Because this is the level of idiocy that we’re quickly approaching in public schools

It’s a freak’n damned shame that we have to pass laws like this:

 ‘Toaster Pastry Gun Freedom Act’ proposed in Maryland. “A Maryland state senator has crafted a bill to curb the zeal of public school officials who are tempted to suspend students as young as kindergarten for having things — or talking about things, or eating things — that represent guns, but aren’t actually anything like real guns.”

Or the recent story of actor Joseph C. Phillips, whose son was threatened by a teacher and had his mental health questioned because he showed a friend a picture of an air soft rifle. A picture. Of what is essentially a toy gun. Sean from Houston captured my outrage over that story pretty well at his blog.

My contempt for most teachers (the Liberal ones, mostly) and for the entirety of Liberal academia grows by the day, and makes me more-and-more motivated to home school our son when he’s old enough to start school. And you can bet your ass that his curriculum will include classes such as: Gun Safety, Marksmanship, Hunting for Sport and Food, Maintaining Your Weapons, and Defensive Shooting.

It seems like the one school most lacking in public education today is critical thinking skills. And now it’s all to obvious why they aren’t teaching it — most teachers are apparently seriously lacking in this skill themselves.

 “The bill also includes a section mandating counseling for school officials who fail to distinguish between guns and things that resemble guns.”

Exactly (h/t to Instapundit)