DLA No Longer Selling Once Fired Brass as Surplus

You may have read about the email recently sent out to purchasers of once fired military brass indicating that the supply is about to be shut off.  This is going to exacerbate our current ammunition shortage.  I sent the following email to my Congresscritter.  Please feel free to copy and send it as your own.

I am writing to ask for your help in overturning a recent, extremely wasteful policy change by the Defense Logistics Agency ("DLA"), which now requires all once-fired brass cartridge cases to be destroyed (AKA "demilled") before being sold to taxpayers as surplus.

Military surplus brass cases have for decades been purchased by US taxpayers and reloaded to make usable ammunition for sport shooters, hunters, and law enforcement agencies.  Currently, there is a shortage of ammunition in the US civilian marketplace and this action will exacerbate that.

Just as bad, this is costing the Department of Defense serious money.  The DLA can sell once fired brass for about $2.00 per pound.  On the other hand, demilled brass is only worth about 35 CENTS per pound.  So not only does the DLA have to expend resources to demill the brass, the demilled brass sells for well under one fourth the price it would otherwise get.  This makes no financial sense in a time when the US government is incurring an unprecedented deficit.

To reiterate, the DOD has been selling surplus brass on the US civilian marketplace for DECADES.  One has to wonder if this is a back door attempt at gun control by the Obama administration, one which it can effect without getting the cooperation of the legislature or the courts.

Please work with the DLA to reverse this policy.