Shortage of Ammunition for Peninsula Police Departments

I’ve been pretty much avoiding national politics at this site. That’s partly because local issues often cut across the traditional battle lines of Left, Right, Liberal, Conservative; and partly because there are already millions of websites and blogs that deal with politics.

But global/national issues can trickle down to local communities. A perfect example is this story from yesterday’s PDN.

Some Peninsula police departments are reporting a shortage of ammunition. Our military adventures in Iraq and Afghanistan are using over a billion bullets a year, and this has led to a severe shortage of bullets (and the price has doubled) here at home.

So far the police departments in Port Angeles and Sequim haven’t had this shortage. But in Forks, Police Chief Mike Powell said, “We have been waiting for months for handgun ammunition. We were told it was due to the war and that the military service personnel get a higher priority than the law enforcement here in the states.”

Crime has been increasing in most of the country lately, including the Olympic Peninsula. It’s time for us to decide — which is more important: Protecting Iraqis who don’t want our “protection” (whatever happened to all that candy and ice cream that grateful Iraqis would be showering onto our soldiers?) or protecting Americans here at home?