Can someone explain this...

[Nyoibo]

Still... Is it really necessary for fraud investigators to be armed?

From snopes

Our office has criminal investigators, or special agents, who are responsible for investigating violations of the laws that govern SSA's programs. Currently, about 295 special agents and supervisory special agents work in 66 offices across the United States. These investigators have full law enforcement authority, including executing search warrants and making arrests.

Our investigators are similar to your State or local police officers. They use traditional investigative techniques, and they are armed when on official duty.

So they're not just investigators, they execute search warrants and perform arrests, not exactly the safest of past times.

[Mongo Skruddgemire]

I think the point I was trying to make was that if you're target shooting, your ammo is likely to be cheaper than the swishest ammo out there. After all, paper targets don't need that much stopping.

No, but you want to make sure that the ammo you are using has the same characteristics as whatever you are going to be shooting in the field. Projectile weight, amount of propellant (and the speed at which it burns) are all factors that can determine how a gun reacts when you pull the trigger.

If for example you're always using wad cutters (rounds designed for paper targets) then you are going to know how the gun feels while shooting wad cutters and are going to get really good at hitting what you are aiming at.

Switch over to a heavier or a more powerful round such as hollow points or full metal jacketed rounds and you're going to very quickly notice that the gun is not reacting the way you're used to and so your accuracy will suffer until you learn the new round.

So it's always a good idea to target shoot with a wide variety of rounds so you can quickly adapt to changing ammo or at least shoot what you're going to use in the field.

As to why they have guns and large quantities of ammo...not a clue.

[Rapscallion]

As to why they have guns and large quantities of ammo...not a clue.

The above makes sense in that guns will aim differently with different ammunition. The apparent large quantities will probably be explained by both the need for target practice and that they can negotiate a better discount by buying in bulk from the manufacturer.

Rapscallion

[Andara Bledin]

And the fact that on a per-agent basis, it's likely not actually very large quantities.

As Nekojin said, it's Big Scary Numbers without useful context.

^-.-^

[Nyoibo]

It works out to a bit under 600 rounds per armed agent, not a huge amount, if they fired 25 rounds a month at the range that's half of that gone already, it's not really a huge amount at all.

[Tanasi]

A few questions to answer:
.357 in question isn't the same as .357 Mag. The round in question .357 is actually known as .357Sig. This a bottle-neck cartridge that is a .40S&W that has had the mouth or neck of the cartridge reduce to hold a 9MM bullet or .356 caliber. Some sat the .357Sig round is equivalent to the .357 Magnum, I don't find that to be true.
600 rounds a year person officer isn't really that much as most agencies require re-qualification at least 2 time per year if not more. It's also been my experience (I'm licensed by the state of TN as firearms instructor) that more officers do not practice and the only shooting they do is qualification. Also most armed officers are very poor marksmen and just barely qualify.
It's also best to qualify with the same ammo that is intended for carry use. It's also good to replace older ammo with fresh ammo. While it takes quite a while (decades) for it to happen the older ammo gets the less reliable it becomes.


All told the number of rounds of ammo that has been ordered and is too be delivered by EOY is nearly 1 Billion. That's just for civilian agenies, does not include Military. A billion rounds seems excessive to me. Why does NOAA have a law enforcement division??? Is there that much danger from bad guys in predicting he weather??? Why does the Department of Education have a SWAT team much less armed agents??? I know there's some really bad-assed kindergarteners out there but really???

[mikoyan29]

NOAA is in charge of the National Marine Fisheries Service part of which I presume has some law enforcement activity when folks decide they want to fish in US National Territorial waters and they shouldn't be. I'm sure they serve some other functions which could be considered as law enforcement.

As for the Department of Education....I dunno.

[NorthernZel]

As for the Department of Education....I dunno.

Campus security, perhaps?

[daleduke17]

Campus security, perhaps?

That's usually through the school itself as a department. The Education Department sets standards for school requirements, not actively being in the schools. I guess it would be along the idea of all the other departments have an armed unit, so, lets just have the Education Department have one too.

[BlaqueKatt]

Why does the Department of Education have a SWAT team much less armed agents???

30 seconds on google:

they do not have a swat team, that was a story started by someone who lied to garner public outrage, he claimed his house was raided by what he thought was a SWAT team(it wasn't, it was local law enforcement and the DoED investigators) because his ex wife defaulted on her student loans-story here


The Office of the Inspector General(of the department of education) has a unit of enforcement agents who conduct investigations and executes search warrants[/I], the OIG’s office conducts about 30-35 search warrants a year on issues such as bribery, fraud, and embezzlement of federal student aid funds.