Hollow-Point Bullets, Hunters, and the Bonus Army

                Several different departments of the Government of the United States have been buying lots of ammunition for numerous months.  They seem to be most interested in hollow point bullets.  This topic first came to my attention in August and September, and more information has recently surfaced.  Paul Joseph Watson wrote about the latestacquisition of ammunition. 

                “While the Obama administration sets out to eviscerate the gun rights of American citizens in the aftermath of Sandy Hook, earlier this week it was announced that the Department of Homeland Security has awarded a company a contract worth over $45,000 dollars to provide the DHS with 200,000 more rounds of bullets.

                “This new purchase adds to the staggering figure of 1.6 billion rounds of ammunition already secured by the DHS over the last 9 months alone.

                “A solicitation originally posted on the FedBizOpps.gov website on December 17 on behalf of the DHS Federal Law Enforcement Training Center advertised the need for 200 cases of 13-40 Cal, 180 Grain, Jacketed Hollow Point bullets, with each case containing 1000 rounds, to be delivered almost immediately as soon as the contract is awarded.

                “The bullets are to be delivered to a training site in North Charleston, South Carolina, which `specializes in Maritime Law Enforcement and Port Security Training.  Basic and advanced training programs are conducted in concert with the U.S. Coast Guard Maritime Law Enforcement Academy, the U.S. Courts Probation and Pretrial Services Training Academy, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Training Academy, the Customs and Border Protection Field Operations Academy, and the Naval Criminal Investigative Service.”

                “The winner of the contract to provide the DHS with the ammunition, announced on January 2, was Evian Group Inc., an organization that was formed just five days before the announcement of the solicitation.  As James Smith documents, Evian Group seems to be little more than a front organization and doesn’t appear to have any real business assets, a genuine physical address, a website, or even a phone number.  Back in August, the Department of Homeland Security censored information relating to the amount of bullets purchased by the DHS on behalf of Immigration & Customs Enforcement, citing an `unusual and compelling urgency’ to acquire the bullets, noting that there is a shortage of bullets which is threatening a situation that could cause `substantial safety issues for the government’ should law enforcement officials not be adequately armed….

                “The contradiction of the Obama administration preaching gun control while simultaneously the federal government arms itself to the teeth with an arsenal that would be enough to wage a full scale 7 year ground war is jaw-dropping….

                “Indeed, the double standard is staggering and while Americans are being raided for stockpiling `arsenals’ of weapons that subsequently turn out to be no more than a few guns, the federal government is simultaneously building a very real and substantial arsenal while the mainstream media turns a blind eye.”

                When I heard about the latest purchase, I wanted to know what the difference was between hollow point bullets and regular bullets.  I asked my resident expert about the difference and was given a short version.  Any bullet can be made into a hollow point bullet by cutting off the end of the bullet and replacing it with a hollow point.  Regular points go through the target with minimal damage, and hollow points flatten out and cause more damage.  Hunters use hollow point bullets in order to bring down the animals except when they want to mount the hide.  Hollow point bullets tear up the hide too badly.  My expert said that the only reason he could think that the government would need hollow point bullets was to shoot people.

                I remembered some information contained in a recent e-mail about American hunters.  An unknown blogger added up the deer license

sales in just a few states and realized that the hunters of America would make up the largest army in the world.  These are the numbers provided by the blogger:  Wisconsin (600,000 hunters - eighth largest army in the world – more men under arms than in Iran and more than France and Germany combined); Pennsylvania (750,000 hunters); Michigan (700,000 hunters), and West Virginia (250,000 hunters).  The hunters in these four states alone would comprise the largest army in the world.  Add in the total number of hunters in the other 46 states and the army would number in the millions.  The blogger believes that “America will forever be safe from foreign invasion with that kind of home-grown firepower.  It’s not just a way to fill the freezer.  It’s a matter of national security.”  The blogger mentioned nothing about attacks from our own government.

                When my expert mentioned the possibility of the government shooting people, he added, “even General MacArthur didn’t use hollow points on the World War I veterans.”  My expert is also a history buff so I asked for more information about what happened to the vets.  His description matched my research findings.

                Congress voted in 1924 to give a bonus to the veterans of World War I in gratitude for their service.  The veterans were to receive $1.00 for each day served within the United States and $1.25 for each day served overseas.  Apparently the Congress then was very similar to the current Congress and “kicked the can down the road” because the payment to the veterans would not be made until 1945.

                The banks failed in October 1929, and the nation was in the dark days of the Great Depression by May 1932 when 15,000 to 17,000 veterans and their wives and children – approximately 43,000 people - gathered in Washington, D.C.  Many of them were unemployed and destitute, and they wanted their money immediately.  They called themselves the Bonus Expeditionary Force, but the public knew them as the “Bonus Army.”  The veterans raised ramshackle camps around Washington, D.C., and waited for the government to pay them.  The largest camp of veterans was located on the Anacostia Flats across the Anacostia River from the Capitol.  There were approximately 10,000 veterans, wives and children living in shacks made from materials found in the nearby junk pile.  They used old lumber, packing boxes, and scrap tin to build their shacks and made their roofs of thatched straw.

                The veterans and their followers disciplined themselves; they laid out streets, dug latrines, and held formations daily.  Anyone new to the camp was required to register and prove that they were honorably discharged veterans.  The veterans planned to stay in their camps until they were paid.

                The House of Representatives voted to pay the bonus to the veterans immediately, and the Senate took up the bill on June 17.  Ten thousand marchers crowded the Capitol grounds by dusk to hear the outcome of the vote.  When they learned the Senate defeated the bill, the crowd was stunned into silence.  Walter Waters, leader of the Bonus Army commanded the marchers to “Sing America and go back to your billets.”  The marchers obeyed their commander and went back to their camps; however, they began a silent “Death March” in front of the Capitol which lasted until July 17, the day that Congress adjourned.

                On July 28, Attorney General Mitchell ordered the Washington police to evacuate the veterans from all government property.  The police met with resistance and fired on the marchers.  Two marchers were killed and others were injured.  When President Hoover learned of the shooting, he ordered the army to clear out the veterans.  Chief of Staff General Douglas MacArthur was in command.  Major Dwight D. Eisenhower served as his liaison with the Washington police, and Major George Patton led the cavalry.  There were also six tanks.

                The troops were massed on Pennsylvania Avenue by 4:45 p.m., and thousands of Civil Service employees left work to watch along the streets.  The veterans were under the impression that they were supported by the military and even cheered their arrival.  Patton’s troopers suddenly turned and charged and were followed by soldiers with fixed bayonets hurling tear gas into the crowd.  The spectators cried, “Shame, Shame.”  

      

                The Bonus Army retreated across the Anacostia River, and President Hoover ordered the army to stop.  MacArthur however ignored the command and led his infantry to the main camp.  By morning 10,000 people were routed out of the camp, and the camp was in flames.  Two babies died, and the nearby hospitals were filled with casualties.   Veterans were also shot at other locations.  The total casualties are:  four veterans dead with 1,017 injured and at least 69 police injured.  There is little wonder that Herbert Hoover lost the election in a landslide!

                In 1933 at the beginning of the Franklin D. Roosevelt Administration, a second but smaller Bonus March took place.  FDR provided the marchers with a campsite in Virginia, three meals a day, and a visit with Eleanor.  She ate lunch with the veterans, listened to them, and promised them positions in the newly created Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC).  This march ended in May 1933 when most of the veterans accepted jobs with the Civilian Conservation Corps at Fort Hunt, Virginia.  Those veterans who chose not to work for the CCC were given transportation home.  One veteran commented:  “Hoover sent the army, Roosevelt sent his wife.”   In 1936 Congress overrode FDR’s veto and paid the bonus to the veterans.  Information on the Bonus Army is from here and here. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bonus_Army

                I still question why our government is purchasing hollow point bullets unless they are preparing to shoot people.  I suppose that they expect civil unrest when the government can longer honor their promises to all the parasites in our nation.  I also suppose they expect a lot of resistance when the government attempts to confiscate all the guns in the nation.  Since wise Americans know that gun registration always comes before confiscation – and confiscation comes before slaughter – many Americans are concerned.  The Bonus Army discovered that the government will fire on its own citizens.  Other Americans have discovered the same thing.  The sect at Waco, Texas, comes to my mind. I believe our government is buying ammunition in preparation for fighting its own citizens in a long and full scale war in its attempt to turn our nation into a totalitarian one.  I hope I am wrong!