Thousands of Rounds of Ammo Stolen From Crater Lake Park

The Register-Guard
Someone has stolen thousands of rounds of ammunition from a locked building at Crater Lake National Park, and the National Park Service is asking for the public’s help in finding the whoever is responsible.

According to a news release Friday from the Park Service, the rifle and pistol ammunition was stolen from a locked building in the park’s headquarters area. The ammunition was used as part of the park’s law enforcement program. Its theft is a felony.

Can anyone please tell me why a national park requires thousands of rounds of ammunition as part of its operations? Almost begs the question: How many damn guns ya got locked up in there? When are they gonna be stolen ... or are you covering that up?

You know ... if they weren't stockpiling ammunition this wouldn't have happened to begin with. Maybe someone ought'a start a White House Petition

if they are going to be stock piling ammo and guns they should at least have adequate security measures.

It's the government, nothing to see here....move along...
On the other hand, if it was you it would be jail time, at least in liberal New York!a reply to: Snarl

In recent years under President Obama, federal agencies have been stockpiling alarmingly huge amounts of military hardware, body armor, and riot gear. As concerns continue to mount over an increasingly bloated and powerful federal government, agencies whose primary function is administrative — such as the EPA, FDA, and IRS — have been progressively militarized. Since 2006, 44 federal agencies have spent an astounding $71 million on items such as guns, ammunition, body armor, and riot and tactical gear.

Link

Yeah it does seem excessive.

Crime in general associated with the park: from tree theft to marijuana growing;

Crimes Follow-up on 2005 Ranger-Involved Shooting - November 5, 2007 On July 27, 2005, two Crater Lake rangers responded to a domestic disturbance in Mazama Campground....

Park rangers cleared in camper's shooting death - September 23, 2005 National Park rangers were justified in shooting and killing a drunken California man in July, federal officials announced Thursday.

Man shot at Crater Lake arrested a year ago - August 02, 2005 Police records indicate a California man shot dead by a ranger at Crater Lake National Park last week had been arrested a year ago for allegedly pulling a knife on security guards who confronted him for shoplifting.

Crater Lake has seven rangers with authority to carry guns - August 02, 2005 Like their counterparts at the local or state level, federal officials with law enforcement authority go through training in an academy setting. Most of the training for rangers and other land protection officers is done at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center in Glencoe, Ga.

More and links

a reply to: Snarl

National Park Service ? What the heck are they doing anyway? Americans are supposed to Bear arms, not arm Bears.

double post

a reply to: Snarl

training, certification, range days, duty carry, and the odd box of ammo kept around for thinning wildlife herds?

"thousands" of rounds could mean two thousand rounds or ten thousand, so that's a little ambiguous. If a normal qualification course is 50 rounds and you have, say, ten officers firing no more than the bare-minimum course a few times a year, that adds up to a few thousand rounds for training purposes alone so I mean....

a reply to: visitedbythem

The postal service even got ammo under obamas b.s. The whole damn thing was a way to drive up the cost and block availability of ammo for us. The government has contracts that say when they order, the manufacturer must fill their order first- thereby making the population wait and pay more.

originally posted by: Shamrock6
a reply to: Snarl

training, certification, range days, duty carry, and the odd box of ammo kept around for thinning wildlife herds?

"thousands" of rounds could mean two thousand rounds or ten thousand, so that's a little ambiguous. If a normal qualification course is 50 rounds and you have, say, ten officers firing no more than the bare-minimum course a few times a year, that adds up to a few thousand rounds for training purposes alone so I mean....

thank you for having some sense. couple thousand rounds is a tiny amount and not too out of the ordinary. the questions i have is more about how it was stored. is this just a small building out in the middle of nowhere for them to have no security footage etc. if so maybe a new policy needs to be put in place to better protect and consolidate the guns and ammo.

originally posted by: Shamrock6
a reply to: Snarl

training, certification, range days, duty carry, and the odd box of ammo kept around for thinning wildlife herds?

"thousands" of rounds could mean two thousand rounds or ten thousand, so that's a little ambiguous. If a normal qualification course is 50 rounds and you have, say, ten officers firing no more than the bare-minimum course a few times a year, that adds up to a few thousand rounds for training purposes alone so I mean....

I think their qualification requirement is 25 rounds (half of what you stated). And, that's if they're even required to be qualified or if the qualification requirements are enforced (which I've seen blown off in so many departments it's not even funny). Even when I was in the Army a failed qualification didn't have any real negative impact on the Soldier. They just had to go back to the range repeatedly and try and try again.

The point, as I'm sure you know, was that I find it patently ridiculous to have an armed force in our National Parks. I hope that thought process is quickly reformed.

originally posted by: Snarl

originally posted by: Shamrock6
a reply to: Snarl

training, certification, range days, duty carry, and the odd box of ammo kept around for thinning wildlife herds?

"thousands" of rounds could mean two thousand rounds or ten thousand, so that's a little ambiguous. If a normal qualification course is 50 rounds and you have, say, ten officers firing no more than the bare-minimum course a few times a year, that adds up to a few thousand rounds for training purposes alone so I mean....

I think their qualification requirement is 25 rounds (half of what you stated). And, that's if they're even required to be qualified or if the qualification requirements are enforced (which I've seen blown off in so many departments it's not even funny). Even when I was in the Army a failed qualification didn't have any real negative impact on the Soldier. They just had to go back to the range repeatedly and try and try again.

The point, as I'm sure you know, was that I find it patently ridiculous to have an armed force in our National Parks. I hope that thought process is quickly reformed.

its a dangerous job for them. spend some time with the some mountain people, bears, mountain lions, etc and youd want to be armed if your going out into those conditions aswell. what id like to ask is do we have an epidemic of forest rangers shooting people in this country? i cant really think of many incidents myself so id say its not an issue for them to be armed.

a reply to: Snarl

4 500 round bricks of 22 LR will fit in your lunch box. That is thousands of rounds.

We need better info to know if this is 2,000 rounds of 22 LR or 75,000 rounds of 45-308-9mm......

a reply to: seasonal

It would be 9mm, .40cal pistol and .556 .308 for long guns.

a reply to: Snarl

Okay so...."go back to the range repeatedly and try again" sorta proves my point: you need ammo to go back to the range and try again.

As far as I know, the FLETC course of fire is 50 rounds, not 25. Since armed rangers go through FLETC, they're held to that standard including once they've left FLETC and gone to an agency. Your anecdotal evidence about seeing agencies blow off training is nulled about my anecdotal evidence that the agencies I've worked for are hyper anal-retentive about firearms qualification since it's a liability.

You asked why a park would need that much ammo, I answered. I would wager that as long as people do illegal things inside parks, there will be park rangers that are sworn, and as long as there are guns, those sworn personnel will also have guns.

a reply to: Shamrock6

training, certification, range days, duty carry, and the odd box of ammo kept around for thinning wildlife herds?

Sure, but most police dept's don't even get that much range time! If the park services get more range time than leo's we have a serious problem. Lets face facts that park officers have less of a reason to have that much training than cops. I would be curious to know how much ammo they have stored compared to a police dept. As a side note under what grounds are they armed? Are they peace officers? There are different types of law enforcement types.

a reply to: Natas0114

What and why did you write that?

a reply to: Shamrock6

Yeah ... you're right. As memory serves the FLETC course of fire _was_ 60 rounds. But, you only had that course of fire when you went through the basic course ... not in the field. Where I worked, you only had to have a CC license to be considered 'continuously qualified' and all of our qualifications were done in conjunction with local LE. Hence, the 25 round state quals ... even less where I work now.

Also, you only had to be qualified on a sidearm. I can't remember a single person qualifying on a rifle. Wasn't my lane though.

a reply to: seasonal

Do you mean the Obama purchase thing?
I write that because many departments did not request ammo-it was sent to them with notifications on storing and inventory requirements. Many federal employees had no idea what why in hell they had received body armor and ammo.
The large purchases weren't made out of the feds lack of rounds. Many suspected that it was some retarded tactic to drive up the cost, and lower availability to citizens. If you look when this was going on, we happened to be in the middle of all our mass shooting rampages we went through. Also the same period when people were foaming at the mouth about reducing gun rights-hence the big demand for ammo. People were worried it wouldn't be available, and all of a sudden, huge orders were put in by the fed. It made ammo expensive and hard to find.

If you meant my calibers post, it's because those are the standardized calibers they are operating with.

a reply to: Natas0114

The story doesn't mention any caliber, or did you find this info somewhere?

I really don't care about the ammo.