Wednesday, March 24, 2010

A Fatal End Run

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. [More]
Gary Marbut of Montana Shooting Sports Association explains how.

In other words, so much for this...

UPDATE: Statement from ATK:
ATK is a strong supporter of our armed forces, the shooting sports industry, second amendment rights and all of our customers who choose to reload ammunition. In fact, ATK is a leader in the reloading market. A dated brochure and presentation have caused confusion in the marketplace and do not reflect the views of our company and will be immediately withdrawn. As a service to our military customers, we routinely handle demil operations for various munitions and respond to requests from military installations for reclamation and recycling of military items. Each contract is awarded through the military installation’s procurement process. The installations received fair value for the brass.

ATK fully supports the provision passed by Congress last year to ensure that demilitarized spent brass casings remain available for civilian use.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

The villain in this story, ATK, owns the following:

•Federal Premium and Estate Cartridge ammunition
•CCI, Speer, Lawman, and Blazer ammunition
•Gunslick, Outers and Shooters Ridge gun care and shooting accessories
•RCBS reloading equipment
•Champion clay targets
•Weaver mounting systems
•Alliant Powder and gun powders for sporting re-loaders and ammunition manufacturers
•Eagle Industries law enforcement tactical accessories

Just sayin...

(Source: http://www.atk.com/corporateoverview/corpover_armamentgroup.asp)

jon said...

surprise, surprise. both ATK and installation commanders respond to incentives.

economic law is as irrefutable as physics, it's just a question of whether you understand it or not. you either act in accordance with it, or practice legalism of one manner or another. that is not what the constitution was for, and such an intent cannot be extrapolated from the text. thus, you do not have a constitutional military. but why should one exist when it was the militia that won liberty, and the standing army of the british empire that did not secure loyalists from the revolution?

the insanity of the warfare state goes far beyond one little deal that keeps ATK out of chapter 11 bankruptcy. the only villain here is a people that continues to give its sanction to this particular flavor of socialism, in the hope the ends will justify the means.

jon said...

"It's time to cure this problem finally with congressional action."

where have i heard that before?

Anonymous said...

Are you surprised a gov contractor has enabled base commanders to set up their own little slush funds? Commercial bribery? These materials belong to me, the taxpayer, not some 2 star ticket punching puke at Fort WTF!

Brock Townsend said...

Marxists never cease unless there is a permanent cure.

Anonymous said...

These empty cartridge cases are the property of the tax payers. Another case of shady dealings behind the curtain.

Doug
Newark, Ohio

John said...

In addition to speaking with your Congressman or Senator, if you just happen to own any shares of ATK, then complain to Investor Relations. I'm calling ol' Jeffy first thing in the morning.

Their contact info is:


Jeff Huebschen
Director, Investor Relations
Phone: 952-351-2929

hazmat said...

Dropped my two senators (Barasso and Enzi) a line just now. Asked them to get with Tester and Baucus to try to put an end to this noghtmare. I mean really? Might fall into the hands of 'unauthorized users'? My achin' behind.

Tom Wolff said...

This sickens me.

Federal, CCI, RCBS? Those alone make up ALL of my primers, my favorite .22 ammo, and one of 2 of my reloading platforms. To threaten a boycott of those products would be painful.

Remington makes my 2nd favorite primers, and Dillon Precision is a
GREAT company, but I still love my Rockchucker. As to .22LR, damn.
Extensive testing showed that my .22's are best fed with CCI HP MiniMags, I even use them for match ammo.

Heck with their powders. Hodgdon and
VihtaVuori are better than Alliant.

I think some POLITE calls should be made.

I wonder how this ties in to the fact that Federal primers are as rare as unicorns nowadays...