Get Brass While You Can

Edit (3/18/2009, 10:51 p.m.)

So an anonymous comment informs me that this has just been reversed. Wonderful. But the fact remains that Uncle Sam wanted to do all this crap. Everything that I wrote about stocking up and keeping an eye out for materials still applies, because you really don't know what they'll pull next, or when.

---

Apparently, DOD Surplus must now destroy the military’s once-fired brass instead of selling it to We the People for reloading purposes. This ends a long-standing surplus arrangement that, for quite some time, has given people brass for military calibers.

You’re probably going to say that the military’s primers are crimped, making them difficult to remove and, therefore, a big waste of time. That’s true of some calibers, but not all. Besides: those who would, until now, find a way to work with the military brass are now going to buy the “rest of the stuff.”

So now, there won’t be as much brass available, meaning that the price of what’s left will increase. Oh, and We the People will pay to destroy the once-fired brass; Uncle Sam does not, despite what the dumbest Americans believe, generate his own revenue. You and I are going to pay to destroy perfectly-good brass, which civilians could reload and use more than once.

And if you’re pissed off because the two-front war we’re currently fighting is costing us a huge fortune, the price just went up. The government was raking in some money off the brass, but that won’t happen anymore because of this new requirement. The brass can still be recycled as scrap metal, but that’s not nearly as good as selling off the metal as once-fired brass. Uncle Sugar’s going to recoup less of John Q. Taxpayer’s money now and, more likely than not, will continue wanting plenty of cash to kill terrorists.

As far as firearms control goes, this is a pretty-good idea. (A pretty bad idea if you’re on my side of the fence.) Obama and Friends know what they’re doing. They don’t have to go door to door, confiscating your firearms. That would be too risky for them, you know. Some little group of patriots might be deeply bothered by the idea and, you know, respond in a less-than-peaceful manner.

Instead, the tyrants stay in their little ivory tower, signing pieces of paper that give them just a little more control over their subjects. They’re going to keep doing this until they either run out of ways to control us, or we get sick of it and kick them out of office.

This is not a new phenomenon, either. Politicians have been trying to wrest freedom from our hands for years, years, years. Both of the two “parties that actually matter” are guilty, and they were doing it long before Obama was even born. He’s merely doing his part to make things worse, that’s all.

So, continue doing your best to get your hands on ammo and components. Now isn’t a great time to have a military caliber unless you’ve been stocking up for it, but oh well. There’s nothing to be done about that now but to grab extra supplies as best you can and work with what you have.

But stock up anyway, folks. If you haven’t made a good-sized dent in your ammo and component needs yet, get busy. Dad's in charge of that aspect of preps here at The Homestead. He spent the weekend out and about, seeing what he could find to top off the stash. We're basically set, but could always use more.

If you’re still trying to acquire the actual firearms, I’d suggest avoiding the military calibers. You really don’t need those in the first place. I know, I know: it’s really tacti-cool to hang a whole bunch of accessories from an AR-15’s quad rail and make the thing look like it came right out of a S.W.A.T. van. Though I’m all for the right to embrace our inner mall ninjas, I’m a bigger fan of functionality. No firearm is useful without ammo, and rising prices – along with the now-reduced brass supply – tends to make the plastastic wonder a really-expensive club and nothing more.

All of that applies even if you don't reload. Companies that buy surplus casings for reloading and sale to civilians won't be able to get their hands on the government supplies anymore, so they'll have to fight over what's left.