Beware of armed weather forecasters …

by | Aug 15, 2012 | Bizarre News, Just plain weird, Please fuck off., Politics, Strange Thoughts, Wasp likes these, Well I never. | 7 comments

Possibly one of the strangest public procurement notices you will have seen :

The NOAA National Weather Service – Western Acquisition Division, Boulder requires the following items, Purchase Description Determined by Line Item, to the following:

 

LI 001, 16,000 rounds of ammunition for semiautomatic pistols to be factory-loaded .40 S&W caliber, 180-grain jacketed hollow point (JHP).

No reloads may be used with these weapons.

All service furnished ammunition for issued firearms will be U.S. factory production.

Delivery to locations below:
8,000 rounds to: Ross Lane DOC, NOAA, NMFS, OLE, NED 130 Oak Street, Suite 5, Ellsworth, ME, 04605
8,000 rounds to: Troy Audyatis, DOC, NOAA, NMFS, OLE, NED 53 North 6th Street, Room 214 New Bedford, MA, 02740., 16, Cases;

 
LI 002, 24,000 rounds of ammunition for semiautomatic pistols to be factory-loaded .40 S&W caliber, 180-grain jacketed hollow point (JHP).

No reloads may be used with these weapons.

All service furnished ammunition for issued firearms will be U.S. factory production.

Delivery to locations below:
24,000 rounds to: Jeff Radonski, A/DSAC DOC, NOAA, NMFS, OLE, SED 263 13th Avenue South, Suite 109, St. Petersburg, FL, 33701., 24, Cases;

 
LI 003, 6,000 rounds of frangible, 125-grain CFRHT .40 caliber.

No reloads may be used with these weapons.

All service furnished ammunition for issued firearms will be U.S. factory production.

Delivery to locations below:
6,000 rounds to: James Cassin DOC, NOAA, NMFS, OLE, NED 3350 Highway 138, Suite 218, Wall, NJ, 07719, 6, Cases;

So, that is 46,000 bullets of various descriptions to be delivered to National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration offices for use by National Weather Service people.

Are their forecasts that bad that they have to arm themselves?

7 Comments

  1. macheath

    Even though this was a typo, do Weather Service officials go armed when visiting remote monitoring stations?

    I don’t imagine bears – polar or otherwise – are great respecters of meteorological science.

    • Wasp

      microdave – ahh, that would explain it. Was amusing while it lasted though …

  2. Furor Teutonicus

    Aye, O.K. Developed for the FBI. Nuff said.

    • Wasp

      FT – in my experience (certainly in a Smith and Wesson pistol) the .40 cal jam like buggery – I can’t recall ever managing emptying a magazine without at least one jam.

      • Furor Teutonicus

        I suspected such where it sais about “no re-loads”. Dead give away.

  3. Furor Teutonicus

    .40 ????

    What’s that in REAL caliber?