Thursday, 30 April 2009




Chaffetz bill would require government to resell shell casings



Joe Pyrah - Daily Herald




For four days in March, gun owners across the country were up in arms about a Department of Defense decision to not resell its spent brass casings.
The DOD sells more than 100 million used casings a year -- in .223 and .308 variants -- to businesses such as Georgia Arms, near Atlanta, which in turn reloads the cartridges and sells them to the public.

Rep. Jason Chaffetz says the decision not to resell was made intentionally by the Obama administration, and he plans to introduce legislation to ensure it doesn't happen again.

It was "a concerted effort by this administration to short the supply" of ammunition, said the 3rd District Republican who views it as back-door gun control.

Georgia Arms co-owner Larry Haynie agrees. He said he was told by government officials that it was a clerical error.

"Hell no," he said when asked if he believed that. "That's just the government catch-all right there."

There is a press release from the Defense Logistics Agency four days after it was initially stated that the casings would be destroyed instead of resold. The DLA is in charge of handling the spent cartridges, including determining their impact on national security.

It reads in part: "Upon review, the Defense Logistics Agency has determined the cartridge cases could be appropriately placed in a category of government property allowing for their release for sale."

Haynie says it was the uproar that caused the change, not a question of national security.

"The American system still works," he said.

Chaffetz wants to make sure the river of empty brass continues to flow from the DOD into private hands. The legislation will read: "The Secretary of Defense may not implement any policy that would prevent or place undue restriction on the continued sale of intact spent military brass ammunition casings to domestic manufacturers of small arms ammunition."

The ammunition market seems to be doing a fine job of keeping prices high all by itself.

"Since Obama was elected, they've just run away," Haynie said, because of fears of gun control legislation. The last time sales were this high was when Bill Clinton was president and talking about an assault weapons ban.

"He's armed up America way more than Clinton ever thought about doing."




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