Fact Check: Social Security Administration ordered 174,000 rounds of bullets, but not to quell civil unrest

But they're not to quell civil unrest if checks stop going out to seniors

by Carole Fader
Posted: August 26, 2012 - 12:17am
Updated: August 26, 2012 - 12:39am

David Karp Associated Press Occupy Wall Street protesters clash with police in October. Though the Social Security Administration did order hollow point bullets recently, it wasn't for civil unrest.



Jacksonville.Com:

Times-Union readers want to know:

Is it true, as an email says, that the Social Security Administration is buying 174,000 rounds of hollow point bullets to prepare for civil unrest?

As strange as it might seem — as in what does the Social Security Administration need with hollow point bullets? — this is mainly true, at least the part about the bullets.

The email talks of a request by the SSA to buy 174,000 rounds of “.357 Sig 125 grain bonded jacketed hollow point pistol ammunition.”

The email gets its info from the website Infowars.com, which published several stories about the request and referred to 41 sites across the country where the bullets would be sent (Jacksonville not among them). The email draws the conclusion that the bullets were for potential civil unrest:

“Social Security welfare is estimated to keep around 40 percent of senior citizens out of poverty. Should the tap run dry in the aftermath of an economic collapse, which the Federal Reserve has already told top banks to prepare for, domestic disorder could ensue if people are refused their benefits.”

The request for the bullets was real, obtained through the Federal Business Opportunities website, which all federal agencies use to post open procurements. You can see the request at tinyurl.com/9shjcvl. (link magically dead)

After the Infowars.com stories were picked up by the Drudge Report and other such arenas, the questions caused the SSA to issue a statement that the ammunition would be used by field locations of the Office of Investigations, part of the Office of the Inspector General.

The OIG’s office of External Relations posted:

“Our office has criminal investigators, or special agents, who are responsible for investigating violations of the laws that govern SSA’s programs. Currently, about 295 special agents and supervisory special agents work in 66 offices across the United States. These investigators have full law enforcement authority, including executing search warrants and making arrests.

“Our investigators are similar to your state or local police officers … and they are armed when on official duty. … They also are called to respond to threats against Social Security offices, employees and customers.”

The notice also explained that the type of ammunition — hollow point bullets that expand as they enter the body, causing maximum damage — are standard issue to many law enforcement agencies and are used in training sessions, including the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center near Brunswick, Ga.

Also coming under scrutiny were bids for 46,000 rounds of bullets by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which clarified its request by saying the ammo would be used by the enforcement arm of the National Marine Fisheries Service.

There is no evidence that any of the bullets are to be used to quell civil unrest. That was the speculation of Infowars.com, which stated: “It’s not outlandish to suggest [emphasis ours] that the Social Security Administration is purchasing the bullets as part of preparations for civil unrest.”

That speculation might have been fueled by a training exercise in downtown Leesburg early this year, in which U.S. Department of Homeland Security agents carrying weapons surprisingly showed up at the Social Security Administration office. A Homeland official in the Washington, D.C., office was quoted by Leesburg’s Daily Commercial as saying that “Operation Shield is an effort that uses routine, unannounced visits by FPS inspectors to test the effectiveness of contract guards, or protective security officers — ‘detecting the presence of unauthorized persons and potentially disruptive or dangerous activities.’ ”