Has Conan O’Brien gone to work writing talking points for Congress???
Photo by Anne C. Savage, special to Eclectablog
You know how all those gun shops are running out of ammo to buy? Well, two Republicans in Congress have figured out why: Obama is buying it all.
No, seriously.
Republicans want to limit the number of bullets federal agencies can purchase so American gun owners can buy more.Oklahoma Sen. Jim Inhofe and Rep. Frank Lucas have introduced a bill that would prohibit every government agency — except the military — from buying more ammunition each month, than the monthly average it purchased from 2001 to 2009.
The lawmakers say the Obama administration is buying up exceedingly high levels of ammunition in an attempt to limit the number of bullets the American public have access to on the open marketplace.
“President Obama has been adamant about curbing law-abiding Americans’ access and opportunities to exercise their Second Amendment rights,” said Inhofe.
“One way the Obama Administration is able to do this is by limiting what’s available in the market with federal agencies purchasing unnecessary stockpiles of ammunition.” {…}
Lucas said the Ammunition Management for More Obtainability (AMMO) Act of 2013 would help curb the rate at which agencies bought up ammunition. He argued that the bill would help preserve the rights of American gun owners.
“After hearing from my constituents about the shortage of ammunition in Oklahoma and the Department of Homeland Security’s profligate purchases of ammunition, we have introduced the AMMO Act of 2013 to curtail these purchases so Americans can exercise their Second Amendment rights without being encumbered by the federal government,” said Lucas.
“Exceedingly high levels of ammunition”! “Buying more each month”! “Profligate purchases of ammunition”! Holy shotgun shells, Batman! This is an outrage!
One problem with that theory: it’s patently false. I realize this is a big shocker to all of you but Congressman Jim Inhofe completely made that up. Even the NRA knows he’s full of it.
“To the extent that we’re responding to conspiracy theories, I think we’re really wasting everybody’s time on that,” [Democratic Rep. John] Tierney said.“Unsubstantiated, false conspiracy theories have no place in this committee room, hopefully. Federal ammunition purchases are a fraction of the ammunition market and they’ve been decreasing in recent years,” he said.
The National Rifle Association (NRA) agreed with Tierney, telling its members last year that the high number of bullet purchases was normal for law enforcement agencies and that people should not be paranoid about the government’s intention on this area.
Inhofe has about as much veracity on this as he does on climate change. In fact, he is rapidly becoming a negative indicator: if he makes a claim on some political topic, you can be nearly certain that the opposite is true. The more provocative his statement is, the less likely it is that he’s telling the truth.
