Good points, Rad. We will do our best to update this and present a more balanced view. It really isn’t our desire to spread alarm for the sake of having something to fill a show.

As to the author of the article, the way he writes the article makes me think he’s just trying to stir people up but I also see some clues that tell me that he’s looking at these purchases through the lens of his military experience. For example he mentions the Geneva Convention, but there are quite a few other things that cause me to give him some benefit of the doubt. For one, the weapons training and standards for qualification are vastly different between LE and military. Where military training is much more rifle based, LE is mostly handgun based. The use-of-force rules and scenarios are also vastly different with LE being the tougher standard I think. In LE the training veers towards how to put down a dangerous assailant or suspect quickly before the LEO or any bystanders get hurt or killed, and to do so without hurting or killing any bystanders in the process. Hollow point rounds are used here because they help do that and have a greatly reduced chance of over penetrating the perp and hurting or killing someone else. In the classical military engagements there is much less concern with hitting bystanders or over-penetration. So, due to this you’ll find that LEO’s will be required to train more often, and shoot more rounds doing so, than a soldier would.

As to their agents getting into scenarios where lethal force may be required, well think about it. Their agents are tasked with arresting those they have investigated and charged. Many crooks try to do stupid things when facing arrest. Things like trying to harm the LEO who is trying to arrest them. It’s standard procedure for any LEO with the power to arrest to be armed. Pretty much always has been. Further, many federal agencies have their own law enforcement divisions:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_law_enforcement_in_the_United_States

The pattern of individual departments maintaining their own law enforcement divisions goes way back. It makes sense too, as that way they can train their LEO’s on all of the details and specifics to enforcing the laws Congress has charged them with.

Hi, Rad,

That’s a valid criticism. Since the article was written by a retired two-star Army general, it seemed worth discussing. If these purchases were odd to a career military man, then maybe they are odd.

I wouldn’t see an issue with the FBI or ATF ordering such ammunition, but the SSA and NOAA’s Fisheries Office? Are security teams from those agencies really getting into situations where they’re called upon to use lethal force? And even if this is nothing more than an example of bureaucratic mission creep, isn’t it worth mentioning?

I did some reading on this tonight and there are conflicting opinions, as you might imagine. Enough people are questioning the use of hollow point rounds for training that we tend to believe that the government is, at best, being extravagant.

Anyway, I wanted to bring this up because I’ve known you guys to do better in the past.

I always thought that maybe Netanyahu could be the second coming of the Messiah. It’s impossible to know how prophecy unfolds.

Semper Fidelis