Social Security Guns Up
by Gary Jason | Posted August 18, 2012
A fascinating little article suggests that despite the rosy assurances of the Obama administration that Social Security is in fine shape, the Social Security Administration (SSA) is preparing for civil unrest.
The article reports that the SSA just purchased 174,000 rounds of ammo — and not just any ammo, but real ’boon-stopping hollow-point bullets (you know, the ones that expand when they hit you, tearing apart your internal organs). The ammo will be distributed to 41 SSA offices around the country. All this ammunition, by the bye, is for .357 semi-automatic handguns, quite formidable pieces for such an anti-gun administration.
Oh, wait — I forgot. Anti-gun progressive liberals only oppose citizens owning guns, not governments.
But the SSA's armaments are nothing compared to those of Homeland Security, which earlier this year bought 450 million rounds of .40 caliber hollow point ammo, on top of 750 million rounds of other calibers.
I have suggested often before in these pages that the Social Security system is unsustainable in its current form, and will be more or less insolvent in about a decade. It is already running a deficit, “covered” only by the fraudulent “trust fund,” which is just a pack of federal IOUs.
At that point, one of five “solutions” will be employed. Benefits could be dropped by about a fourth for all recipients. Or benefits could be “means-tested,” meaning that anybody who is well enough off not to “need” Social Security would just be denied it, despite having paid into the Ponzi scheme for decades. Or the government could print money and debase the currency, causing inflation (which is a kind of universal tax). Or 401k and other private retirement accounts could be “nationalized,” i.e., seized and used to shore up the Social Security system (as happened not long ago in Argentina). Or SSA taxes could be jacked up on all income levels.
Each of these outcomes would make some group, or the whole country, very angry.
Hence the hollow point ammo. Gut-shoot granny with hollow-point bullets when she storms the local SSA office, pissed off because her promised retirement support hasn’t materialized . . .
Gary Jason is a lecturer in Philosophy and a senior editor at Liberty. His books can be found on Amazon.com.
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Comments
Kant feel Pietzsche
I get the concern. But, a couple of points:
1. You qualify with what you carry on duty, that's pretty much SOP in all law-enforcement.
2. Every SSA office in America now has an armed guard on duty at the door. They also quiz you as to any "weapons" you might be carrying.
3. That quantity of ammo is not that alarming. I have a friend who trains the SWAT team for a mid-sized city (membership of 25 officers). He just recently bought 25,000 rounds just for training/qualifying for that SWAT team.
Sat, 2012-08-25 22:17
Jonathan Howard
I don't see the use of hollowpoint ammo as significant--no responsible cop or armed citizen carries anything else on the street, due to the problems of over-penetration and ricochet. Nor is the use of .357 SIG autos particularly significant--cops and citizens both found that in rare circumstances, 6 is not enough. But any big government program needs lots of armed employees, because they piss people off. Any S&W collector knows about the Postal Service's order of a special training revolver (the Model 45 after 1957)in th '50s and 60's. Even the Post Office needs goons--that's what government is about.
Wed, 2012-08-22 11:51
Visitor
The various states' National Guards' (part of "the military") have always been used to suppress public uprisings.
This is no different today. As has been proven many, many times in the last 10-15 years. Politicans, and the majority that elect them have absolutely no qualms about deploying the National Guard to supress the minority that disagrees with them.
Tue, 2012-08-21 12:32
paul thiel
I find the purchase of hollowpoint ammunition very interesting (and disturbing). My understanding is that the current rules of war demand less lethal full metal jacket ammunition. Is our own government really prepared to use more lethal ammunition on its own citizens than it is on an invading army?
Mon, 2012-08-20 13:09
Rodney Choate
Let me say this (and there's little chance I would have been understood had I said it 20 sum-odd years ago,when I first made note of the issue). Probably no one will agree with me even today, but here goes.
A red flag went up for me a long time ago when police officers switched from their 6-shooters to the fancy semi-autos. My explanation of my concern is that the switch indicated to me that the police was moving from mere law enforcement to fighting some kind of war- the drug war, etc. I didn't like what I saw and I think it's connected in some way to what we see now.
Call me crazy, but that's how I felt.
I'm just say'in.
Mon, 2012-08-20 00:23
ajf
Another article (with the caveat that it's Fox-sourced: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/08/17/agencies-tamp-down-speculation-over-hollow-point-ammo-purchases/), records the agency response that this is for "standard training."
Though since this is standard training apparently for Social Security cops with "full law enforcement authority, including executing search warrants and making arrests," a whole bunch more questions are raised along the way. One assumes these investigators would be busting benefit frauds or check stealers; if so, do they really need to be armed? And moreover, armed with hollow-point-loaded semi-automatics? Disturbing.
Sun, 2012-08-19 17:32
Gary Jason
The reason I find that the news realease you cite ("Agencies Tamp Down Specualtion Over Hollow Point Bullets") (which was put out the next day) less than persuasive is that it seems unlikely that officers would practice at the range with hollow-point rounds. The hollow-point rounds are relatively expensive, as opposed to practice ammo, which is typically cheaper rounds with solid bullets. The rounds fire the same--the difference is that hollow points have greatly enhanced killing power.
It is all very amusing.
Mon, 2012-08-20 16:08
Jon Harrison
The SSA claims that the purchase is routine and that it has almost 300 armed employees who must qualify on the range four times per year. SSA estimates 150 bullets expended per employee per appearance on the range. 300 x 600 equals (roughly) the amount of bullets SSA is buying.
I never knew that SSA employees carried arms. I would've guessed that they use Homeland Security or the marshal service for protection. Don't know that I like the idea of sitting across from an SSA employee who could be "heavy."
The announcement of these ammo purchases has spawned some odd conspiracy theories which so far lack supporting evidence. But I wouldn't be surprised if the federales are indeed stockpiling ammo in preparation for civil unrest. The very last thing they want to do is call on the Army to suppress dissent or shoot down citizens. The tie between the citizenry and the armed forces is just about the last one that still binds the people and the government that supposedly represents them. Washington, D.C. seems more like a foreign capital with each passing year.
The Department of Homeland Security has already mushroomed into a small empire that costs a ton of money and endangers rather than protects our liberty. Would someone please write a piece exposing this potential wolf in sheep's clothing?
Sun, 2012-08-19 16:14
Jim Henshaw
Why would the Social Security administration need to qualify 300 employees on * hollow point * bullets? Or at all? Wwould a private insurance company ever require employees to be qualified to shoot hollow point bullets? How pissed off do your "customers" need to be for that to be an option?
Oh, and the article left off the easiest option -- let anyone who wants to, to permanently opt out of Social Security -- never pay any more money into it, and be disqualified from receiving any payments at all from it, regardless of how much you had stolen from your previous paychecks for this program.
Mon, 2012-08-20 16:05
Jon Harrison
The thought had also crossed my mind: why would hollow point ammo be used on the firing range? The only innocent explanation I can think of is that the government wants its people to train with the same ammo they would use if called upon to fire their weapons for real. Does that make any sense? I'm not aware that there's any difference between firing hollow point rounds and regular ammo, but I'm no expert. I do feel that the whole business cries out for further investigation.
Hollow point bullets are only illegal in warfare. They are legal for law enforcement and personal protection purposes. Go figure.
Tue, 2012-08-21 10:08