Americans need to arm themselves and know why it is important to do so.

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DHS won't explain its order of 450 million hollow point bullets

AT1 - .45 ACP - Federal HST 230 Gr +P JHP

After 9/11, the United States government created the Department of Homeland Security to prevent future acts of terrorism and deal with other domestic issues. Now in order to keep doing such, the agency is asking for 450 million hollow point bullets.

The DHS has signed off on an “indefinite delivery” from defense contractors ATK that will include, for some reason, nearly 500 million high-power ammunition for .40 caliber firearms. The department has yet to discuss why they are ordering such a massive bevy of bullets for an agency that has limited need domestically for doing harm, but they say they expect to continue receiving shipments from the manufacturer for the next five years, during which they plan to blow through enough ammunition to execute more people than there are in the entire United States.

“We are proud to extend our track record as the prime supplier of .40 caliber duty ammunition for DHS,” reads an official statement from Ron Johnson, ATK’s president of Security and Sporting, who adds that his group will also be giving up weaponry to the DHS subdivision of ICE, or Immigrations and Custom Enforcement.

While ammunition itself seems not too unreasonable of a request by a major federal entity that emphasizes domestic durability and safeguarding the country from coast to coast, the choice — and quantity — of its hollow point order raises a lot of questions about future plans for the DHS. ATK says they won their contract with the US government by being able to provide them with 450 million HST bullets, which it describes as “the next generation in high performance duty ammunition.”

What does that mean, exactly? On their website, the contractor claims that the ammunition is specifically designed so that it can pass through a variety of obstructions and offers “optimum penetration for terminal performance.” Or, in other words, this is the kind of bullet designed to stop any object dead in its tracks and, if emptied into the hands of the DHS a few hundred million times, just might do as much.

Since its inception, the Department of Homeland Security has not only absorbed ICE and other government entities, but has arguably extended its powers much more broadly than many had imagined. Under the recently authorized Trespass Bill, H.R. 347, protesters that allegedly disrupt occurrences acknowledged by the DHS of being a National Special Security Event will be charged with a federal crime. As the DHS gains more and more ground in fighting terrorism domestically, the US at the same time has turned the tables to make its definition of terrorist way less narrow. With any American blogger or free thinking on the fringe of what the government can go after under H.R. 347, or the National Defense Authorization Act that allows for the indefinite detention of US citizens without charge, the DHS could just be blasting through what’s left of its budget to make sure that its roster of agents across the country can get in their target practice over the next few years.

Of course, the government might just want to ensure that each one of those agents is more than able to assassinate Americans not just around the globe, but on their own soil. After all, for all of those angsty alleged Americans engaged in terrorism abroad, the US has the largest military in the history of the world to deal with them. In that case, they could argue that it only makes sense to equip their armed forces at home as well.
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Misc Info:

The 357 Mag and 45 Mag they aim to do two different jobs.

The 45 .ACP is a rather blunt round, it will go into the target, but it won't come out the other side, it will however cause massive damege where it does penetrate.
In essence, its a low penetration-low velocity round with allot of stopping power on soft tagets, it wont travel very far though, and it will bouce off most body armour.

The 357 Mag is the opposite, its a slim long projectile with a big casing to send it on its way, meaning its a high penetration-high velocity round.
It will penetrate allot more, making it superior to the 45 .ACP against hard targets, but it wont do as much damage to soft tagets, it will however overpenatrate, meaning instead of one bleeding hole, theres two, and the target will die from loss of blood faster if youre aim was off.

So it really depends on what situation you find youreself in, against a soft target, i would want the 45 .ACP, against a hard target, i would want the 357 MAG, but thats in the real world.
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Amendment II (1791)
A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.
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It means exactly what it says, that the people’s individual right to be armed will be respected and that the resulting armed populace will be secure against tyranny, invasion, and crime. Our founding fathers were careful to construct this sentence in such a manner that there could be no other reasonable interpretation besides the obvious. Anybody with even the most limited understanding of the English language will agree.

Why was it written?

We migrated to the United States to escape oppressive totalitarian government.
The concept behind the United States is that the centralized federal government has limited power over the people (as opposed to the dictatorships from which we came)

The Second Amendment states that in order to maintain a free state, the people must retain the right to keep and bear arms. The presence of armed citizens is what keeps the government "honest". No government would be foolish enough to impose a dictatorship on people who have the ability to resist.

The Second Amendment does not grant us this right. This right already existed. The Second Amendment merely prevents the government from infringing on it.

MILITIA??? Just what is the militia?

NOTE: "Well-regulated militia" does not mean the National Guard. At the time this was written, "well-regulated" meant "well-trained". If you believe "militia" means the National Guard, you must also believe that freedom of speech is reserved for the U.S. Government printing office.

If you read 10 USC Sec. 311 (That's Title 10 of the U.S. Code, Section 311, subtitle A part chapter 13) you'll find this:
(a) The militia of the United States consists of all able-bodied males at least 17 years of age and, except as provided in section 313 of title 32, under 45 years of age who are, or who have made a declaration of intention to become, citizens of the United States and of female citizens of the United States who are members of the National Guard.

Why was the Second Amendment written, and why is it still important today?