August 20, 2012 — What does the National Weather Service want with 46,000 rounds of jacketed .40-caliber hollow-point ammunition? That's what a lot of people were wondering last week when they saw the order posted on a federal website for vendors.
To make it even more juicy, the bids were to be sent to a New Bedford address that turns out to be the federal building on Sixth Street.
What could this possibly be? The posting was circulating fast in the email. Was the Weather Service about to go all Dirty Harry? "The chance of showers today is 70 percent. You feeling lucky today, punk?"
Alas, it was nothing so bizarre, and within a few hours Scott Smullen, deputy chief spokesman of NOAA, was blaming a clerical error and said that the ammo (along with paper targets) was being bought by the NOAA Office of Law Enforcement.
"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," Smullen wrote.
The weatherman, thank goodness, is not going postal.
Lesli Bales-Sherrod, spokeswoman for the national NOAA Office of Law Enforcement, supplied a little more info. She told us in an email that all agents and officers are required to have 200 rounds in their duty bag, and twice-a-year training and qualification consumes another 500-600 rounds.
So it's not surprising that the agency would need 46,000 rounds.
But what about the hollow points and the jackets, which are copper sheathing on the lead bullets to reduce lead fouling and increase tissue damage? This wasn't sitting too well with one anonymous critic in the Northeast, where NOAA has had a very troubled history with its law enforcement office.
"Hollow tipped slugs? What are they for?" the anonymous critic wrote in a widely circulated email. "Is this 'quick kill ammo' to stop fishermen if they're caught destroying evidence during an investigation, maybe dumping a now illegal yellowtail flounder overboard and shredding the vessel trip report, while avoiding apprehension by speeding away at 7.5 knots?"
The critic continued, "This kind of ammo is necessary to do the most damage to the internal organs of such culprits, isn't it? Standard issue?"
Well, yes, and even though hollow points have been illegal in international warfare since 1899 because they mushroom open to do the maximum damage, they are widely used in the U.S. by law enforcement.
Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard Times.