Michigan's top lawyer, Attorney General Dana Nessel, is making waves as she demands federal action on the sale of military-grade ammunition to civilians, as reported by CBS Detroit. Nessel, along with nineteen other attorneys general, has directed a letter to the Biden administration's White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention, insisting on an inquiry into how this high-powered ammo is ending up on our streets.
According to CBS DETROIT, the concern hinges on the commercial availability of rounds manufactured at the Lake City Army Ammunition Plant in Missouri, a facility under U.S. Army supervision and one of the nation's primary producers of military ammunition. The attorneys general are not just up in arms about the potential for harm but also about the fact that more than $860 million of taxpayer money has bolstered production, an investment that they argue shouldn't facilitate arming civilians with military-grade firepower.
"Ammunition from Lake City is manufactured for military use and does not belong in our communities," the letter noted, a sentiment echoed in Michigan Government's press release where Nessel insists that weaponry intended for combat should not be fueling domestic terror. Nessel joins a substantial group of her counterparts from states like California, New York, and Illinois, indicating a broad concern across jurisdictions.
The concern over ammunition sales took a darker turn with the acknowledgment, detailed in a report by the Gander Newsroom, that ammunition subsidized by the government for military use has been used in mass shootings; these include tragedies such as those at Tops supermarket in Buffalo and Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, creating a chilling association with a federally funded contractor's product, the Lake City-produced rounds that have, in some harrowing instances, been praised by perpetrators for their devastating efficacy.
The demand is for a federal probe into how such ammunition was contracted and distributed into civilian hands, but also for recommendations that could prevent military-intended ammunition from landing in the market again, as evidenced in a statement obtained by Michigan.gov. These attorneys general are asking for a public report that could guide policy on keeping such ammunition out of reach from the public, an act they believe could curtail the firepower available to potential mass shooters and thereby reduce the lethality of such attacks.
