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Prohibiting the industrial sale of extra army ammunition could be detrimental to America’s fight readiness.
That’s what over 100 Republican US Senators and Representatives stated in a letter to Military Secretary Christine E. Wormuth final Wednesday. The letter urged her to ignore calls from Democratic politicians and gun-control advocates to finish the sale of ammunition from the Lake Metropolis Military Ammunition Plant to civilians. It warned {that a} failure to take action may danger future army ammunition shortages.
“We write to you at the moment to specific our deep and rising considerations with latest requests to halt the industrial sale of sure ammunition manufactured on the government-owned Lake Metropolis Military Ammunition Plant as permitted by the Division of Protection contract,” the letter reads. “We strongly advise you towards performing on these ill-advised requests, as it is going to basically hurt army readiness.”
The letter pushes again on an ongoing marketing campaign focusing on the Lake Metropolis plant spearheaded by New York Legal professional Basic Letitia James (D.). She and 19 different Democratic attorneys common final month despatched a letter of their very own to the Biden administration’s Workplace of Gun Violence Prevention, asking it to ban the civilian sale of ammunition made on the plant.
They argued that Lake Metropolis’s ammo—which makes up the biggest supply of small arms ammunition for the US Armed Forces and is estimated to produce round 30 p.c of the present civilian marketplace for 5.56 NATO—has “change into the ammunition of selection to be used in mass shootings.” That the letter captured the ire of 32 Senators and 76 Representatives highlights the plant’s political salience and its distinctive place on the intersection of army preparedness and civilian gun rights.
The Republican lawmakers wrote that the plant’s present enterprise practices stem from the army’s expertise on the onset of the International Battle on Terror. They stated the plant couldn’t ramp up manufacturing shortly to fulfill the rising wants of the US struggle effort as a consequence of a scarcity of working equipment and expert employees.
“In an effort to fulfill the wants of army operations following the sudden assaults of September 11, 2001, DOD needed to flip to overseas companions to fulfill small caliber ammunition wants,” the letter reads. “In an effort to fulfill manufacturing calls for and forestall earlier errors, DOD modified contractual obligations by Lake Metropolis operators to permit for the power to retain a talented workforce and to develop manufacturing traces that may surge to fulfill the continually evolving threats that face our nation.”
The lawmakers declare {that a} change in coverage to ban future industrial gross sales from the plant, as requested by James, would “severely disrupt” ammunition provide chains and lower the plant’s expert workforce by greater than half.
“We strongly urge you to reject calls to ban the industrial sale of ammunition produced at Lake Metropolis as a result of it is going to undermine army readiness and hurt our nationwide safety,” they wrote.
The firearms trade’s commerce group cheered the letter. Larry Keane, Senior Vice President for the Nationwide Taking pictures Sports activities Basis, praised the letter’s signatories for placing “army readiness forward of special-interest partisan politics.”
“Making certain our army forces are geared up with the ammunition they should defend our nation ought to by no means be a political soccer for gun management particular pursuits or the politicians supporting their radical agenda,” Keane stated in a press release.
The Lake Metropolis plant’s follow of promoting ammunition for civilian AR-15s and different firearms has lengthy been a supply of controversy for gun-control advocates. In 2022, Winchester, the plant’s civilian operator, alleged that the Biden Administration was contemplating chopping off future civilian gross sales. Nonetheless, the administration determined to not undergo with the shutdown.
A November 2023 New York Instances article thrust the plant’s civilian gross sales again into the highlight. The piece documented cases of ammunition produced on the Lake Metropolis facility being utilized in mass shootings and different violent crimes. Nonetheless, it didn’t discover proof of the plant facilitating unlawful gross sales or deliberately supplying criminals.
The Biden Administration has not talked about the renewed effort to chop off surplus ammo gross sales. The Military didn’t reply to a request for touch upon the dueling letters.
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