We Can Stop Panicking, Now

A few days ago, word his The 'Netz that a rule change had resulted in the Department of Defense re-categorizing expended brass ammunition cartridge cases with whatever code means "Must be rendered unusable before re-sale."

Expended Mil-Spec brass is valued by both commercial and home reloaders because it is high-quality--maybe not the absolute best, but certainly very, very good, and quite consistent--and because you can get a lot of it for a decent price. (As long as you want military calibers, but never mind.)

So there was a lot of consternation when the following letter went out:

Dear Valued Customer:

Please take a moment to note important changes set forth by the Defense Logistics Agency:

Recently it has been determined that fired munitions of all calibers, shapes and sizes have been designated to be Demil code B. As a result and in conjunction with DLA's current Demil code B policy, this notice will serve as official notification which requires Scrap Venture (SV) to implement mutilation as a condition of sale for all sales of fired munitions effective immediately. This notice also requires SV to immediately cease delivery of any fired munitions that have been recently sold or on active term contracts, unless the material has been mutilated prior to sale or SV personnel can attest to the mutilation after delivery. A certificate of destruction is required in either case.

Thank you,
Customer Service Management
Government Liquidation, LLC
DOD Surplus, LLC
15051 N. Kierland Blvd, Ste 300
Scottsdale, AZ 85254
Ph: 480.367.1300
Fax: 480.367.1450

Online Help:http://www.govliquidation.com/help/index.html

Sooooo...

A lot of people started raising pluperfect Hell.*

But wait! Someone noticed that the address given above is not an actual Department of Defense entity!

Among them, my friend Boyd Kneeland, who spends so much time either training folks or as a gun rights activist that I can't understand how he has time for a job, let alone a family, but there you have it. And so Boyd started making calls.

And eventually, he reached someone from the Defense Logistics Agency (in Columbus, Ohio, which may explain a lot...) and, after checking, she told him that "it's probably temporary, when the demil code changed it did got {sic} challenged.... It's not a policy change so much as someone edited the wording of that demil code."**

Mind you, I'm not saying that this really was a tempest in a teapot caused by a clerical error. I will concede to the conspiracy theorists that it is quite possible that this was sort of a trial balloon, to see what THEY could get away with; blaming a clerical or typographical error is a bureaucratic cover-up. On the other hand, well, keep reading...

In the meantime, a lot of people called, emailed, and wrote their congresscritters. And, yesterday, this message was posted on Georgia Arms' website:

Dear Loyal Customers,
Thanks to your voice, DOD has rescinded the order to mutilate all spent cases as of 4:30 pm on 3/17/09. We appreciate the time and effort that you expended, together we all made a difference. We will be posting the email we received from DOD as well as any additional information within the next 12-16 hours. Thanks so much and lets get to work!!! Georgia Arms

Georgia Arms being probably the second biggest commercial reloading company in the USA. As to who stirred up the most trouble for them I can't say. Just about everyone was involved: AR15.com, Jews For The Preservation of Firearms Ownership, The Firing Line, The New High Road, just about every email list, and most of the high-profile gun bloggers. The whole shootin' match, so to speak.

The following was also posted on the Washington Concealed Carry List yesterday:

I just received a phone call from the office of U.S. Senator Tester of Montana to inform me that at 5:15 (EST) today a letter cosigned by Senator Tester (D-MT) and Senator Baucus (D-MT) was faxed to the Department of Defense asking DoD to reverse its new policy requiring destruction of fired military cartridge brass.
At 5:30, I am told, Tester's office received a fax back from DoD saying that the brass destruction policy IS reversed.
Others report to me that they are already seeing evidence of this on the Websites of entities that liquidate surplus DoD commodities.
Our thanks go out to Senator Tester and Senator Baucus, and their staff, for getting on this problem promptly and making the reversal happen
Staff for Tester and Baucus promise they will get me the documentation for this reversal tomorrow morning. I'll forward that when I get it.

As to whether this really was a simple clerical or bureaucratic error, or a trial balloon, I'm not sure it matters. Frankly, I question whether the gun banners would have thought of this; OTOH, if we stir up this much trouble over a relatively obscure issue like the re-sale of expended brass, THEY have to know what will happen if they try anything more extreme...


*And a lot of tin-foil beanies were being worn, too. You know, "They can't get our guns, they'll take our ammo, ammo is already getting pretty scarce..." But that's a different post, which I probably won't write.

**Quote from Boyd's email.

References: Among others, DOD Ends Sale of Expended Military Brass to Remanufacturers and Plowshares Beaten Back into Bullets