The Department of Homeland Security's recent acquisitions of nearly two billion rounds of ammunition, 7,000 assault weapons and 2,700 mine-resistant, ambush protected vehicles constitutes a "bold threat of war" against American citizens, according to a retired U.S. Army captain who has growing concerns about the purchases.
"It is with gravest concern that I write to you today concerning the recent appropriation of weapons by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) that can only be understood as a bold threat of war by that agency, and the Obama administration, against the citizens of the United States of America," Terry M. Hestilow, an Afghanistan veteran, wrote in a letter posted on his Facebook page he says he sent recently to Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas.
Referring to the ominous purchases - which DHS officials have attempted to downplay, Hestilow labeled them "a tyrannical threat against the Constitution" and a deliberate attempt to defund the Department of Defense.
Remember - Obama himself brought up the concept of a 'powerful civilian national security force'
The decorated vet asked Cornyn to honor his oath of office to his constituents and the Constitution to "demand in clear terms that the Administration cannot ignore, that the Department of Homeland Security immediately surrender their newly appropriated weapons of war to the Department of Defense..."
"Significant is the fact that at the same time the Obama administration is arming his DHS for war within the limits of the United States against the People of the United States in accordance with his 2008 campaign speech claiming," as candidate Barack Obama in 2008
We cannot continue to rely only on our military in order to achieve the national security objectives that we've set. We've gotta (sic) have a civilian national security force that's just as powerful, just as strong, just as well funded [as the United States military]...
"Further," he writes, "since the DHS has assumed a position in the Administration to enforce the tyrannical acts of this president against the People of the United States against the limits of the United States Constitution, it remains for the United States Congress to exercise its limiting power in the balancing of powers established by our founding fathers, to disestablish and dissolve the DHS as soon as possible."
Hestilow called the DHS purchases a "glaring threat of war against our nation's citizens," and actions he says "can only be understood as a tyrannical threat against the Constitution of the United States of America."
If the situation is not resolved, Hestilow wrote to Cornyn, "the peace loving citizens who have sworn to defend the United States Constitution 'against all enemies, both foreign and domestic' are left no option except to prepare to defend themselves, and the U.S. Constitution, against this Administration's 'coup' against the People and the foundations of liberty fought for and defended for the past 238 years. We have no choice if we honor our oaths."
Others are also seeking answers
As his motivation for writing, Hestilow cites the rise of Nazi Party leader Adolf Hitler in the early 1930s.
"One needs only to look to the rise of Adolf Hitler, and his associated DHS organizations, the SA and the SS, of 1932-1934, to see the outcome of allowing an agency of government this kind of control over the free citizens of a nation," he wrote. "The people of Germany could not have imagined, until it was too late, the danger of allowing a tyrant this kind of power. We must not be so naive as to think it will not happen to us as well if we remain passive toward this power grab by the Marxist Obama administration!"
Hestilow's letter comes amid news of a brand-new request by DHS for an additional 360,000 rounds of .40 caliber hollow point ammunition, bringing the huge department's recent orders more than two billion rounds, to be supplied over the next four-five years.
Hestilow is not the only one seeking answers.
"The extraordinary level of ammunition purchases made by Homeland Security seems to have, in states such as my own, created an extreme shortage of ammunition to the point where many gun owners are unable to purchase any," Rep. Doug LaMalfa, R-Calif., and 15 other lawmakers wrote in a separate letter, asking DHS why the department is filing purchase requests for so much ammo so quickly.