Heart Bleeds

My Heart Bleeds:

A reader sends this story about ammunition shortages for police:

Troops training for and fighting the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are firing more than 1 billion bullets a year, contributing to ammunition shortages hitting police departments nationwide and preventing some officers from training with the weapons they carry on patrol.
Here's a little concept I've been working on: if police departments armed themselves like cops instead of carrying military-spec weapons, this wouldn't be a problem. I have yet to hear of the ammo shortage on .357 Magnum or .38 Special rounds. That cop busting caps out of his M-4? That's a choice he or his department made. They could have chosen a civilian-style rifle instead, and would find that there was no shortage at all of .30-30 Winchester cartridges.

Of course, they'd have to admit that it's perfectly honest for a cop to carry a revolver, a rifle or a shotgun like any other civilian, instead of being tricked out like a G.I. Joe Commando. The military gets first dibs on military weapons in wartime. That's just the way it has to be.

Here's another concept: maybe this isn't the time to shut down our native ammunition plants with punitive new regulations. Just a thought.

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