WASHINGTON — The Social Security Administration (SSA) has come under public scrutiny in recent days after having posted a notice that it was purchasing 174,000 hollow-point bullets. Reasonable minds could certainly find such a purchase highly suspicious, given that the agency which provides benefits to retirees, disabled workers, widows and children seems to is not widely known for also stockpiling deadly ammunition. The question naturally arises: On whom does the SSA intend to use the ammo?
Interest in the SSA’s munitions purchase became so widespread that the agency decided to dedicate a website to explaining the purchase. Their explanation is meant to downplay the widespread concern that the SSA’s arms buildup is meant to defend against seniors whose benefits might one day be taken away by spurious modifications to entitlement programs – privatization, raising the retirement age to a rate closer to when most senior die anyway, etc. – proposed by some elements in both political parties.
The bullets are for SSA’s office of inspector general, which has about 295 agents who investigate Social Security fraud and other crimes, stated Jonathan L. Lasher, the agency’s assistant IG for external relations, in an official statement.
The agents carry guns and make arrests – 589 last year, Lasher said. They execute search warrants and respond to threats against Social Security offices, employees and customers.
Agents carry .357 caliber pistols, Lasher said. The bullets, which add up to about 590 per agent, are for the upcoming fiscal year. Most will be expended on the firing range.
Lasher’s statement raises another, namely “why the hollow-point bullets?” Hollow-points are known for causing more tissue damage than other bullets when they hit a person because they expand when they enter the body.
“For practice ammunition, they do not have to be hollow-points, but hollow-points are the normal police round used for duty ammunition due to their ability to stop when they hit an object as opposed to going through it and striking more objects,” said William J. Muldoon, president of the International Association of Directors of Law Enforcement Standards and Training.