Reports

DOD and ATK Back Down

ATK and DOD Reverse Course

Military Brass Destruction (again) Halted

The on-again, off-again program to destroy once-fired brass appears to be off with strong statements by both DOD and ATK that the apparent revival of the program was based on dated information and reaffirming the company’s commitment to the Second Amendment and its civilian customers.  The Defense Department meanwhile responded the halt in shipping brass into surplus channels was merely a review.
Small arms cartridge cases are identified as a sensitive Munitions List item and were held pending review of the policy relating to the category of items in which cartridge cases were included. Upon review, the Defense Logistics Agency has determined the cartridge cases could be appropriately placed in a category of government property allowing for their release for sale.
 
ATK responded to MSSA’s queries here:
and DOD Responded to NRA queries here:
Thanks to Ammoland for helping us stay current.

Immediate action needed!

Halt destruction of military brass!

The following important release from our good friend Gary Marbut needs your immediate attention.  Once-fired military brass is being destroyed again and this time the enemy is in our own industry.  ATK Techsystem, manufacturers of powder and ammunition is buying up brass from base commanders and destroying it to keep it off of the civilian market.

This scheme is going to need consumer response and congressional intervention to stop it.

Please help to spread the word.  Repost this article and link back to it at www.FirearmsCoalition.org, and contact friendly Senators and Representatives asking that they join efforts to require the DOD to sell brass for reloading rather than burning tax dollars to shred it.  Thanks to our good friend Gary Marbut of the Montana Shooting Sports Assocation.

Military Cartridge Brass Destruction 2010 – Round 2

by

Gary Marbut, President, Montana Shooting Sports Association

The cure that was arranged by Montana Senators Baucus and Tester to fix the intended military destruction of once-fired cartridge brass last year appears to be suffering from a fatal end-run.

Interested persons will remember that a year ago, helpful intervention by Montana’s senators persuaded the Department of Defense to rescind a fresh DoD directive to military installation commanders requiring them to destroy once-fired brass prior to selling it at auction into the civilian marketplace for ammunition reloading and other purposes.

An end-run is being done around the rescinding order through quiet and sweetheart side deals with installation commanders that is being aggressively promoted by ATK.

Some characters must be introduced to explain this story.  ATK/Alliant Techsystems is the defense contractor that currently has the contract to operate the Army’s huge Lake City Arsenal, the last government-owned facility in the U.S. for production of small arms military ammunition.  While other contracts to operate Lake City have been cost-plus, the contract ATK arranged allows ATK to retain profits of operation.  Although government/private partnerships always seem to be strange creatures, the nature of the government/ATK partnership may be stranger than most.

Government Liquidation is another private entity that has an exclusive government franchise to sell surplus military equipment, from all military installations nationwide, to all qualified bidders.

Until recently, most used cartridge brass sales were put up for public bid through Government Liquidations, bids available to scrap metal purchasers, to foundries processing brass, to specialized cartridge brass processors that reconditioned millions of surplus cartridge brass for sale to commercial reloaders of civilian ammunition, and to civilians for ammunition loading.  The steady supply of reloadable brass from military sources has been a sizeable and essential component of the currently stressed ammunition market in the U.S.

Although the private Government Liquidations retains a fee for the auction services it provides, the bulk of income from Government Liquidations’ sales of surplus military property is directed into the U.S. Treasury, to be reallocated and appropriated by Congress, as needed.

In a recent turn, ATK has been aggressively promoting sweetheart side deals with military installation commanders for those commanders to sell used cartridge brass directly to ATK (which ATK then renders unsuitable for reloading – “demils”), the income from which is deposited, NOT into the U.S. Treasury for reallocation by Congress, but into accounts controlled by installation commanders for installation operation.

ATK even provides portable equipment to demil tons of cartridge cases at the military installations, destroying the brass for reloading purposes.  Because the destroyed cartridge case brass is not suitable for reloading, it cannot command a price driven by auction for the highest-value use of reloading.  Military installation commanders sell the Alliant-destroyed brass to ATK at a private, non-auction, special price.  Commanders are willing to accept the reduced price because the sale proceeds go quickly to the commanders’ discretionary accounts and not back to the U.S. Treasury via Government Liquidations.

Quote from ATK program sales literature:

“Payment is made to Fort Irwin not DRMO [or Government Liquidations], so Fort Irwin utilizes the money that is generated from the Recycle project for other recycling efforts.”

ATK, then, ships this destroyed cartridge brass to the foundries from which ATK gets new stock for manufacturing new cartridge cases, offsetting in significant part what ATK would otherwise pay the foundries, and thereby increasing ATK’s profit from operating the Lake City Arsenal.

Government Liquidations suffers a substantial decrease in business since fired military brass has long been a most lucrative surplus product they’ve traditionally handled.

Meanwhile, the big losers are the U.S. Treasury (U.S. taxpayers), and civilian ammunition consumers who will see higher prices and more shortages in the ammunition marketplace from this scheme.  U.S. gun owners are effectively being taxed by this scheme to provide greater profits for ATK.

There is one additional motive at work here.  In part, this juicy scheme is being sold to military installation commanders with the reasoning that “We cannot allow this reloaded ammunition to fall into the hands of militias.”  The sell-direct-to-ATK idea is being sold to installation commanders as a way to deprive imagined U.S. civilian enemies of firepower.  Installations have even been told privately that this is a way to keep ammunition out of the hands of “domestic terrorists.”

Quotes from ATK program sales literature:

“Currently handling brass scrap for ATK Lake City — for sole purpose of recycling material and preventing any reloading of spent cases by the public with military grade brass.”

“Keeps Military Grade Brass from being re-loaded by unauthorized users.”

“To PREVENT anyone from using your scrap ammunition components for non-military purposes.” (Emphasis in the original)

“Assurability for the [military] installation, that no one can use this cartridge against law enforcement or our military personnel, by reloading the case.”

It’s time to cure this problem finally with congressional action.  The Montana congressional delegation is spooling up to address this issue.  Senators and Representatives from other states need to join the Montana delegation in fixing this problem finally with congressional direction to DoD to require that all expended military brass of civilian-useable calibers generated domestically goes through the public auction process.  This will benefit the U.S. Treasury, America’s gun owners, and the adequacy of the ammunition marketplace.