Why Do Weather Forecasters Need Hollow Points?

Why would the National Weather Service need 46,000 rounds of hollow point bullets? Hollow point bullets have, as anyone who knows anything about guns, one purpose: to hurt what they hit, usually people. Hollow point bullets are designed to expand when they enter the body, causing as much damage as possible to internal organs and tissue. They have, since 1899, been outlawed in international warfare.

So again, I have to ask: “Why would the National Weather Service need 46,000 rounds of hollow point bullets?” Sounds unbelievable, doesn’t it? Yet this Federal Business Opportunity solicitation (number DG-1330-12-RQ-1028) requests just that!

To be more specific:

• LI 001, 16,000 rounds of ammunition for semiautomatic pistols to be factory-loaded .40 S&W caliber, 180-grain jacketed hollow point (JHP), to be delivered to Ellsworth, ME, and New Bedford, MA
• LI 002, 24,000 rounds of ammunition for semiautomatic pistols to be factory-loaded .40 S&W caliber, 180-grain jacketed hollow point (JHP), to be delivered to St. Petersburg, FL
• LI 003, 6,000 rounds of frangible, 125-grain CFRHT .40 caliber, to be delivered to Wall, NJ

By the way, a frangible round is one that, upon entering the body, is easily broken. Thus one round can have the effect of several rounds.

The solicitation also requests 500 paper targets be delivered to each of the ME, MA, and NJ locations.

Now that attention has been called to this solicitation, the National Weather Service says this solicitation was a “clerical error.” But the solicitation notice type was a “Modification/Amendment,” making one believe that there had to have been an original solicitation. Also, there is nothing I can find about the solicitation being rescinded. Can CDN readers help me here?

And all of this is in addition to the 450 million rounds that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) bought in April, 2012, as well as the purchase of 750 million more rounds DHS is purchasing. DHS also bought 175 million .223 rifle rounds, the kind used in the military M-16, as well as the standard NATO round. That’s a total of 1.2 Billion rounds purchased by DHS, far in excess of what is needed for target practice. Is DHS expecting a war to keep Obama in office after the November election?

But that’s just my opinion.

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