There’s a bizarre paranoia streak running through American culture these days. It’s difficult to pin down the exact time period that it first emerged, but one thing we know for sure is that Americans have become one of the most easily frightened populations on the planet. It’s amazing that any of the sheep in this society manage to step out the front door of their homes.
Unfortunately, our fears have finally reached a new level of absurdity. On Saturday, several homes in a San Antonio neighborhood were evacuated by the fire department, and a police bomb squad was called in. The reason? A dusty old box of ammo.
Apparently there was a sealed box of 75 rounds of .40 caliber ammo, and it was about 40 years old (though there’s some debate about that, since 40 s&w is the only commonly used .40 caliber round, and it wasn’t invented until 1990). The current residents of the home where this ammo was found, suspect that it was left behind by a veteran who used to live there.
And this isn’t first time this has happened.
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The bomb squad was called to the same house a week before to take care of a box of shotgun shells. As for why this is a threat worthy of calling the authorities, the captain of the bomb squad told NBC News that “They’ve rusted, they’ve been exposed to the weather, elements outside so we definitely want to get them disposed of as quickly as possible.”
Really? That’s absolutely ridiculous. Rusty ammo is dangerous to shoot and it needs to be disposed of properly, but it’s not like they will just spontaneously cook off while sitting under a house. It sounds like the bomb squad just needed an excuse to justify its existence, which is easy to do when you live in a paranoid society.
Joshua Krause is a reporter, writer and researcher at The Daily Sheeple. He was born and raised in the Bay Area and is a freelance writer and author. You can follow Joshua’s reports at Facebook or on his personal Twitter. Joshua’s website is Strange Danger.
We have all the wrong people in positions of perceived authority. The article highlights facts that the responding personnel should have know if they were honest and competent.
First and foremost, brass does not rust, and even if they were rusted (Which is impossible) they pose no threat of explosion. Second, hunters and people involved in shooting sport have more ammunition than this in their homes. The cops and people responding more than likely carried more ammunition on their person than was in the box!!! The date on the box cold have been in reference to anything.
This is what passes for personnel engaged in public safety and LEO??
The only thing that truly endangered the people of that area was the complete incompetence of those trying to respond.
Liars and con men trying to scare you into thinking you need them. I’ll bet a lot of overtime was collected.
If we cannot find it within ourselves to demand some intelligence and responsibility from people like those responding we will be enabling more of our own problems and see an escalation.
What’s next witch hunts???
FEAR FEAR FEAR
I don’t blame the civilians in the least – some soccer mom wants it moved and at least knows enough not to throw it in the garbage ….
A responding uniformed officer most probably didn’t want to crawl under the house – hence the coverall uniformed bomb squad ….
But the Keystone Coppers response to this neighborhood was just absolutely the most ridiculous action I’ve heard of in ages ….