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Fair enough, but if this Lake City company (of whom I have zero knowledge) is capable of manufacturing some "big stuff" that is small enough to be considered "s

Fair enough, but if this Lake City company (of whom I have zero knowledge) is capable of manufacturing some "big stuff" that is small enough to be considered "small arms", and they've decided to dedicate their entire shop floor and manpower toward those products, then the article isn't wrong and neither are any of the comments that I had read when I posted. Just a lack of clarity that nobody in any official capacity is going to do anything about :)

_djo_ 3y ago
The facility in Lake City is the Lake City Army Ammunition Plant, owned by the US government but operated by Winchester Ammunition. It has always been a small arms production site, mainly producing 5.56mm, 7.62mm, and .50. Under the terms of the management contract Winchester may sell the excess capability of the facility, outside what the military orders in any given year, on the civilian market. However the contract also states that military orders take priority and if there’s a big new order placed then those civilian sales contracts need to be paused or cancelled. This is done to preserve the large production lines outside of large US military orders. So the article is still wrong to include it, because it’s confusing two very different things: There’s no shortage of small arms ammunition, and what’s happening at Lake City is the system working as intended. There are also many facilities that can produce those calibres. It's easy. The issue with production is with large ammunition, like 155mm artillery shells, anti-tank missiles, etc that's much more difficult to produce than small arms ammunition and for which it takes much longer to spin up more capacity. Lake City is irrelevant in that context.
- Animats 3y ago
  Right. However, some non-military ammo users are panicking. Look up the "God, Family, and Guns" YouTube channel. (Yes, really.)
  - _djo_ 3y ago
    Those people panic at the drop of a hat, usually on pure rumour, and gun shops intentionally ratchet up the hysteria. There are of course responsible gun owners in the US, but there’s also a ton of easily led, highly political, irrational, and paranoid ones. Lake City makes just 30% of the US’s supply of 5.56mm, so that calibre will still be available to buy but will just be more expensive for a bit. It’ll also only affect people who own AR-15s and similar rifles and who are a minority of gun owners.

_djo_ 3y ago

The facility in Lake City is the Lake City Army Ammunition Plant, owned by the US government but operated by Winchester Ammunition. It has always been a small arms production site, mainly producing 5.56mm, 7.62mm, and .50. Under the terms of the management contract Winchester may sell the excess capability of the facility, outside what the military orders in any given year, on the civilian market. However the contract also states that military orders take priority and if there’s a big new order placed then those civilian sales contracts need to be paused or cancelled. This is done to preserve the large production lines outside of large US military orders. So the article is still wrong to include it, because it’s confusing two very different things: There’s no shortage of small arms ammunition, and what’s happening at Lake City is the system working as intended. There are also many facilities that can produce those calibres. It's easy. The issue with production is with large ammunition, like 155mm artillery shells, anti-tank missiles, etc that's much more difficult to produce than small arms ammunition and for which it takes much longer to spin up more capacity. Lake City is irrelevant in that context.

Animats 3y ago
Right. However, some non-military ammo users are panicking. Look up the "God, Family, and Guns" YouTube channel. (Yes, really.)
- _djo_ 3y ago
  Those people panic at the drop of a hat, usually on pure rumour, and gun shops intentionally ratchet up the hysteria. There are of course responsible gun owners in the US, but there’s also a ton of easily led, highly political, irrational, and paranoid ones. Lake City makes just 30% of the US’s supply of 5.56mm, so that calibre will still be available to buy but will just be more expensive for a bit. It’ll also only affect people who own AR-15s and similar rifles and who are a minority of gun owners.