Every year, the federal government buys massive amounts of ammunition, primarily to meet the needs of the military. For years, the government has been recouping part of its ammunition expenses by reselling the used casings to remanufacturers. In turn, these private companies take the used brass, clean it up, re-load it with powder and bullets, and sell it on the private market — largely to police departments, but to private individuals as well.

Well, all that is changing. The Obama administration is changing the rules on re-selling used bullet casings. From now on, they cannot be sold for remanufacturing, but rather must be liquidated at scrap value. To guarantee used bullet casings cannot be re-used, they must be deformed beyond functionality.

These scrap items are small and cheap, but add up in bulk. Remanufacturers pay about five times what salvagers offer for the casings. The government is taking an 80% cut in revenues with this new rule — and that doesn’t count the extra effort and expense of mutilating the casings in the process.

The consequences of this change? Quite a few remanufacturers are cutting back business drastically, if not closing up shop entirely. In a time of economic crisis, this change of policy could destroy an entire industry.

So, why would the Obama administration do this? The most commonsense explanation (even if a little conspiratorial) would be that this is yet another back-door effort toward gun control.

By removing a key element in the ammunition supply chain — the used casings — the Obama administration can, by a simple and unpublicized tweak in Defense Department policy, drive down the supply of ammunition. Even the most devout socialists must concede that the law of supply and demand is at work here: by drying up the supply of ammunition, the cost will go up.  And guns with no ammunition are useless.

It isn’t just civilians who buy remanufactured ammunition. Police departments also buy and use it. So communities all across the nation will soon notice their police budgets going up as they have to purchase brand-new ammunition, at a significantly higher price.

So much for recycling!

This is an insidious and indirect challenge to  Second Amendment fans and it’s being implemented via legitimate administrative channels, without the headaches of passing laws or amending the Constitution.