Snowflakes in Hell

It’s a sign of the time I suppose, from a CMP email:

AMMUNITION PURCHASE LIMIT: During the past 60 days we have experienced a ten-fold increase in orders for HXP .30-06 ammunition. This activity has significantly reduced our inventory. To ensure that the current inventory last another few years, effective immediately we are establishing an individual maximum purchase limit of ten cases of .30-06 HXP item # 407-Case and 10 cases of item # 415 per year.

NEW HXP .30-06 AMMUNITION PRICES:  New prices are: Item #407-Case - $238 per case; item #407-Can - $60 per can; item #415 - $134 per case; item #415-CN $67 per can. New prices are effective 5 May, 2008. CMP will honor the old price for all orders already received, but not yet processed.

It’s disappointing, but I’m not sure there’s going to be any more cheap .30-06 once the HXP runs out.  One thing I think gun owners need to work on changing is the prohibition on the US military selling surplus ammo to civilians.  While that won’t help the .30-06 situation any, it might help reduce prices for more modern military calibers.  Cutting off military surplus ammo is also one of the chief dangers of international arms control.  HXP is of Greek manufacture.  Imagine a world where no one can sell anything to civilians.  Think about how many of your favorite guns are foreign made, and you see how this becomes a big problem.

There’s been a lot of talk on the blogosphere this weekend about Mayor Daley of Chicago outfitting police with M4s.  While I’m a proponent of a well-armed police force, I will suggest that rifles capable of fully automatic fire have no place in police work.  That’s not to say I have a problem with police having AR-15s, and I do believe that the submachine gun has a role to play in tactical units, but issuing military M4s to patrol officers is probably a foolhardy publicity stunt on the part of the mayor.

The only real purpose for automatic weapons is to suppress enemy fire, to allow members of a squad to advance, or to defend against a human wave attack, where there’s a need to take down multiple targets on a battlefield.  In police work the object should be well aimed fire, and for that semi-automatic AR-15s should be sufficient for that purpose.

Feel free to disagree with me in the comments, but I’d hate to think what would happen the first time an officer flips off the safety a bit too energetically.  I also tend to think what’s prohibited to civilians, because it’s a “military weapon of war,” ought to also be prohibited to police forces.   If the police need it and can use the firearm for self-defense, so can I.  If I can’t have it, because it’s not useful for self-defense, then it’s not useful for police self-defense either, right?

This brings me to a thought I’ve had since oral arguments in Heller.  Would a good test for the second amendment be any arm that’s in common police use is protected?  Keep in mind that the courts, according to every export on this subject that I’ve ever talked to, are going to be completely unwilling to rule that the second amendment is without limit, and are absolutely not going to be willing to rule that it protects explosive ordnance, such as rocket launchers, and anti-tank weapons.  A common police use standard, I think, would probably be pretty reasonable.  What do you think?