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Government Mandated Limited-Life Gunpowder
Fairlane66
Member Posts: 336 ✭✭
OK, I've heard this from two sources now, but I haven't found anything factual on the subject so I thought I'd broach the question here. Hope this is the right forum.
Two friends have told me the government might madnate that commercial ammuntion be produced using only gunpowder with a very limited shelf life. As opposed to currently produced ammo that can be stored for decades given the right conditions, this new stuff would have a much more limited life, perhaps two years. Supposedly, this is to keep "right-wing nut-jobs" like most of us from stockpiling ammo.
OK, this sounds like conspiracy theory to me, but I suppose it's possible given some of the other things the government folks dream up. However, I think this would pose some real problems for everyone. First, I think the manufacturers could be liable for damages, i.e. shooting degraded ammo that causes a gun malfunction and possible injury. Two, how could you produce gunpowder that would degrade at the same rate in different temps and environments, i.e. Alaska or Arizona?
Again, I hope I haven't posted this on the wrong forum, but thought some of you experts might be able to comment on the veracity or feasibility of this claim.
Two friends have told me the government might madnate that commercial ammuntion be produced using only gunpowder with a very limited shelf life. As opposed to currently produced ammo that can be stored for decades given the right conditions, this new stuff would have a much more limited life, perhaps two years. Supposedly, this is to keep "right-wing nut-jobs" like most of us from stockpiling ammo.
OK, this sounds like conspiracy theory to me, but I suppose it's possible given some of the other things the government folks dream up. However, I think this would pose some real problems for everyone. First, I think the manufacturers could be liable for damages, i.e. shooting degraded ammo that causes a gun malfunction and possible injury. Two, how could you produce gunpowder that would degrade at the same rate in different temps and environments, i.e. Alaska or Arizona?
Again, I hope I haven't posted this on the wrong forum, but thought some of you experts might be able to comment on the veracity or feasibility of this claim.
Comments
The truth is you will have military ammo, which completely out of necessity, has to be able to be stored for possibly decades. If it ever does get passed that bullets, powder, cases, and firearms every have to have a 'registered' identifier (meaning the mark a gun leaves on the bullet/case, not the serial number) manufacturers will quit producing them. There is no way to feasibly do that.
At least now you are aware there is a new methodology to the anti's in Washington. They are attacking the support/supplies not the guns themselves. Trying to sneak powder and primers and ammo into OSHA's "highly explosive" category instead of just flammable to increase costs. And, 'save the workers' who've suffered many less mishaps than drivers on the road have. It's not about facts and relative facts, it's about people trying to push their will onto you.
They don't actually exist, but imagine, for a minute, that there actually WERE such a thing as gunpowder (or primers) that degraded slowly over time.
If at manufacture, 100% of the rounds worked and at (say) 5 years 0% of the rounds were supposed to work, then that means that somewhere in between manufacture and the "expiration" date, you'd have boxes of ammo that contained ammo where SOME of the rounds won't go off.
Which ones? I don't know. . .and I don't know how you could know short of destructive testing (ie either shooting the round or taking out the powder and testing it. . .effectively rending the round useless).
So *BY DESIGN* you have created a situation where you're going to have some "duds" in every box of ammo, but not be able to identify them.
That situation would be ABSOLUTELY intolerable. No soldier, cop, security guard, nor private citizen who trusts their life to firearms could ever deliberately live with that.
Anyone who made ammo like that would open themselves up to massive liability, as people's hunts and lives are ruined from rounds that didn't go off.
Further, realistically, this isn't a binary situation where the rounds either work fine or don't work at all. Much more plausible would be a situation where the powder slowly lost its effectiveness over time.
That means you would start off with rounds with 100% power, and 5 years later have rounds with 0% power.
In between, you'd have rounds with LESS THAN NORMAL and likely UNPREDICTABLE power levels.
Again, this would be a completely unacceptable situation. Not only would all accuracy be destroyed, but rounds like that would be INTRINSICALLY unsafe, since a. you could get "squibs" (where the bullet doesn't leave the barrel), b. you couldn't predict with certainty where the bullet was going when you pulled the trigger, and c. the bullets may lack enough energy to do what they need to do (eg kill game humanely).
Gimping bullets this way just makes absolutely no sense at all.
So, while the gun-haters have all sorts of schemes to try and slowly erode the average American's ability to own weapons (see below), this particular one isn't one of them.
Some examples in actual practice:
-Restrict or ban transfer of ammunition and ammo components (eg like in MA).
-Increase taxes on guns, ammo, and ammo components. That reduces people's ability to acquire them, or to practice with them.
-Shut down public shooting ranges citing 'environmental' or 'occupational' hazard. Again, no ranges, no practice, no shooting sports.
-Ban various kinds of guns outright (eg Clinton gun ban).
-Only permit certain gun models on State-approved lists (again, see MA). Process/rules to obtain State-approval may be deliberately vague, confusing, difficult to follow, expensive, and arbritrary.
-Require complicated, intrusive, and expensive licensing procedures to obtain guns and ammo (again, see MA, NJ).
-Ban certain calibers or types of ammo (eg .50BMG in CA, hollow points in NJ).
-Require reduced capacity magazines (many states: CA, NJ, NY, MA, etc).
-Require personal registration of every single gun (eg MA, etc).
Attempting this: has been proven chemically impossible, & that was well over a decade ago.
Would thus suggest that ya quit:
1) listening to this type of "friend"
2) spreading BS hype
Hey, b0400879, I'm not spreading BS hype. I chose to post a legitimate question in a forum called "As the Experts"! Give me a flippin break....if I cannot ask that kinda question here, then what sort of politically correct questions would be appropriate?
Don't worry about him. It was a valid question given the rampant rumors floating about. I've always believed in asking the question, rather than parroting the BS. Feel free to ask your questions, I much prefer to see someone making an attempt at educating themselves than seeing the typical liberal parrot idiots who do no fact checking for themselves.
The economy & healthcare is on the front page now. 6-12 months from now they will be after us!