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.This works out to a little over 700 rounds each for practice and qualification. Quite frankly, that doesn't seem like a very stringent qualification. NOAA should be ordering a half million rounds of ammo for these 63 officers to train and qualify.
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.
So everyone can stand down. Not only is there a perfectly plausible explanation, it's another example of the low standards set by the Fed.Gov. Hopefully these are FPS types, and represent entry level (not elite) police. Why NOAA needs a police force is a whole different question, of course, but it sure doesn't seem very big (or 'l33t).
Of course, I'll probably be keeping a bench in the Camps warm for all y'all, but this seems to be pretty minor. Your mileage may vary, void where prohibited, do not remove tag under penalty of (NOAA) law.
11 comments:
Now, if you wanted to control a population... would you use your standard (very loyal and morally suerior) mercenaries or would you get EVERYBODY to control the masses?
Let's say the military sees the retards that are the NOAA pulling out .40 gats and shooting up some peoples. Why would they? They're stupid. That's why. "The President said do it and it's a lot better than watching clouds. BANZAI MotherF******!"
The military that's loyal now sees "everybody else doing it" so it's very obviously legal and still an order. Mob mentality on a massive scale kicks in. Your odds are still better than just getting your normal group to fight that war.
Why do weathermen need enforcers?
I have a strong bias against NOAA's storm (heh) troopers, mostly because they've got a hard-on for unfairly punishing fishermen under Obama's appointee, who has diverted funding from environmental monitoring and research into developing a police force that doesn't answer to the US Coast Guard, the recognized law enforcement body outside the territorial sea.
If you want to shut down ammo to the people then you must have a stockpile ready beforhand. After that simply re-start the arsenal system, Govenment only. Sorry bud but haveing Us military and CIA/ATF/FBI/DOD ect. post " don't worry be happy" in the blog-O-shphr , just don't carry the water it used to.
Someone recently posted, in regards to this administration, that it seemed they were the opposite of Hanlon's Razor; that is, when it comes to the Obama administration, never attribute to stupidity that which can be attributed to malice.
This is Chicago politics on a grand scale, my friend. They know they can't get a full-on ban on guns - that's political suicide.
What good are guns without ammunition, though?
Choke the supply, people have very expensive, ineffective clubs...
The debate about the Fisheries service needing armed officers is interesting but is another debate. Certainly, if they do have a law enforcement arm, wouldn't we want those officers to be as proficient with their firearms as we wish the local police forces are? If they have to use their service weapon, don't we want them to hit what they are aiming at?
I used to have a rock hanging on a string in the back yard. When it was wet, it was raining. When it was swinging, it was windy. If it was white, it was snowing. I could tell the weather myself.
The storm troopers came and made me take it down. Now I need to rely on the government to tell me what the weather is outside.
It's not the weather service. NOAA runs the National Fisheries Service who boards boats to ensure fishing rules are adhered to. Ignoring the "why do they have their own Law Enforecement and not just use FBI or someone else" argument (it's still the same number of additional LEOs, just with a different name tag), can you imagine federal law officers going into a situation without trying to have superiour firepower?
Second off, that 700 rounds is twice per year. 350 rounds for practice and qualifications. Doesn't sound like much. I've used more than that in a day before.
I downloaded and read everything on the Fed Biz Opps website. It doesn't seem all that alarming to me.
Of course, if anyone criticizes a conspiracy theory that makes them part of it, right? ;-)
SiGraybeard @ work
Broken Andy and Anonymous- to clarify, please cite any cases where a NOAA officer operating without a large team has ever been in a physical altercation with a commercial fisherman.
You can find a few fistfights and the odd assault by flare gun, but NOAA cops are only there to keep the sweet, sweet kickback money flowing.
http://fishery.about.com/od/NewNationalRegulations/a/Noaa-Law-Enforcement-Faces-Corruption.htm
Since NOAA is empowered to act in the same waters as the US Coast Guard, and the US Coast Guard is empowered to enforce all state and federal fisheries regulations, there's a labor overlap, which begs the question, once again: what are NOAA enforcement officers for, if not to ensure that which is Caesar's is rendered unto him.
As fun as conspiracy is, couldn't this simply be the .gov re-competing a contract to purchase items (ammo in this case). With a few exceptions Gov contracts cannot exceed 5 years in length, so this is going to pop up from time to time. This type of contract says that the Gov will buy -insert small number of items- from you and we could possibly buy as much as -insert absurdly large number here- items from you. Anyone with time to kill can visit www.contractdirectory.gov and find all of the government contracts for ammunition.
Social Security Administration To Purchase 174 Thousand Rounds Of Hollow Point Bullets
Geez, now they have to hold them off at SSA?
libertyman: As more Baby Boomers start showing up to demand their retirement benefits, it could get ugly.
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