By Dave Workman
Editor-in-Chief
A coalition of 20 Democrat state attorneys general has asked Stefanie Feldman, director of Joe Biden’s new White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention, to launch an investigation of contracting and manufacturing practices which allegedly allowed “military-grade” 5.56mm NATO ammunition to be sold to private citizens.
Signing the four-page letter were the attorneys general from New York, Arizona, California, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Hawai‘i, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington.
The letter asserts that “billions of rounds of military-grade ammunition manufactured at the Lake City Army Ammunition Plant have been sold on the commercial market, leading to their use in many of the most tragic mass shootings in recent history.”
“We ask your Office to conduct an investigation into the contracting processes that led to this situation, and to take action to ensure that military-grade and military-subsidized ammunition stays out of civilian hands,” the letter states.
New York Attorney General Letitia James is leading the coalition, according to an announcement on her agency website.
The issue first came up late last year when Business Insider and others reported that the Lake City Army Ammunition plant had “shifted to commercial sales in 2011 and is now one of the biggest manufacturers of commercial AR-15 ammunition in the United States.”
The New York Times reported last November that Lake City had produced “hundreds of millions” of cartridges for the commercial market since 2011. Buried several paragraphs into the Times report is the acknowledgement that, “The vast majority of Lake City rounds sold by retailers have gone to law-abiding citizens, including hunters, farmers and target shooters.”
However, the newspaper story also said, “some Lake City rounds have been seized from drug dealers, violent felons, antigovernment groups, rioters at the U.S. Capitol and smugglers for Mexican cartels.”
The newspaper report said ammunition from Lake City had been tied to mass shootings including the 2012 movie theater incident in Aurora, Colo., the 2018 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida and the mass shooting in Las Vegas in 2017.
When the White House announced this Office of Gun Violence Prevention back in September, it noted that “gun violence prevention advocates” had been appointed to key leadership positions, confirming concerns that this was nothing more than a gun control effort.
