ACTION ALERT: Stop Pentagon’s Weapons
Contractors from Fueling Mass Shootings 
Win Without War

WASHINGTON, DC (November 5, 2024) — Ammunition made for the Pentagon is showing up at crime scenes across the country:

A New York Times investigation conducted last year found that shooters have used bullets from the Lake City Army Ammunition Plant in at least 12 high-profile mass shootings, including at a supermarket in Buffalo (2022), a movie theater in Aurora (2012), a concert venue in Las Vegas (2017), and schools in Parkland (2018) and Uvalde (2022). [1]

Over a year after these troubling revelations came to light, the Pentagon is STILL allowing Lake City to pump “billions of rounds of military-grade ammunition into the commercial market.”

Lawmakers including Sens. Elizabeth Warren, Alex Padilla, and Mazie Hirono, along with Reps. Jamie Raskin and Robert Garcia have recently called out this reckless policy and requested more details on its impacts from the Secretaries of Defense and the Army[2], but we haven’t seen the changes necessary to keep us safe.

You know what can help speed an end to this dangerous practice? If tens of thousands of people start talking about the Pentagon’s failures — and take action — today.

ACTION: Sign now to urge Secretary Austin to stop contracting
with companies that sell military-grade ammunition to civilians.

The simple reality is that you can’t fire a gun without a bullet. That’s why it’s time to regulate ammunition and firearms with more urgency. The human cost of easy access to guns and ammunition is incalculable, yet many of our leaders still refuse to recognize the truth: Weapons of war have no place on our streets.

Here’s the grim backstory: The Pentagon contracts with Olin Winchester to operate the Lake City plant which is now one of the country’s biggest manufacturers of commercial rounds for AR-15 guns.

Any ammunition the Pentagon doesn’t buy can be sold commercially. That means military-grade bullets are ending up in the hands of civilians ― including mass shooters.

That includes people like the Buffalo supermarket shooter, who murdered ten people in 2022. He described Lake City’s ammunition as “the best barrier penetration ammo I can get.”

This practice isn’t just reckless, it’s deadly. And it’s being subsidized by your tax dollars.

By allowing the sale of excess military-grade ammunition to civilians, the Pentagon is indirectly fueling mass shootings and gun violence across the country, and prioritizing weapons manufacturer profits over the safety of our communities.

But a different future is still possible — and grassroots activism can be the catalyst that tips the scales toward safety. Please join us, along with powerful champions in Congress, to push Secretary Austin to rethink this broken, devastating approach now.

Weapons of war — bombs, drones, assault rifles, military-grade bullets — don’t make our, or any, communities safer. Our kids, our teachers, and our communities deserve so much better than the senseless violence we see every day.

Thank you for working for peace,
The Win Without War team

Footnotes

1. “Army Ammunition Plant Is Tied to Mass Shootings Across the U.S.” The New York Times
2. Warren, Raskin, Garcia, Members of Congress Urge DoD to Stop Subsidizing Sale of Military-Grade Weapons to Civilians, Senator Elizabeth Warren