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Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Why is the United States Department of Education buying shotguns?

Click here for the official purchase order for 27 Remington shotguns, deliverable to the Department of Education.

And here's the full text, in case it goes down the proverbial "memory hole" (or if you're too lazy to hit the link)...

Remington Shotguns
Solicitation Number: EDOOIG-10-000004
Agency: Department of Education
Office: Contracts & Acquisitions Management
Location: Contracts (All ED Components)

Synopsis:
Added: Mar 08, 2010 10:39 am

The U.S. Department of Education (ED) intends to purchase twenty-seven (27) REMINGTON BRAND MODEL 870 POLICE 12/14P MOD GRWC XS4 KXCS SF. RAMAC #24587 GAUGE: 12 BARREL: 14" - PARKERIZED CHOKE: MODIFIED SIGHTS: GHOST RING REAR WILSON COMBAT; FRONT - XS CONTOUR BEAD SIGHT STOCK: KNOXX REDUCE RECOIL ADJUSTABLE STOCK FORE-END: SPEEDFEED SPORT-SOLID - 14" LOP are designated as the only shotguns authorized for ED based on compatibility with ED existing shotgun inventory, certified armor and combat training and protocol, maintenance, and parts.
The required date of delivery is March 22, 2010.
Interested sources must submit detailed technical capabilities and any other information that demonstrates their ability to meet the requirements above, no later than March 12, 2010 at 12 PM, E.S.T. Any quotes must be submitted electronically to the attention of Holly.Le@ed.gov, Contract Specialist (Contract Operations Group), with a concurrent copy to Sherese.Lewis@ed.gov, Contracting Officer (Contract Operations Group).
The following clauses are applicable to this requirement:

52-212-1 Instruction to Offerors - Commercial Items
52.212-2 Evaluation - Commercial Items
52.212-3 Offeror Representations and Certifications - Commercial Items
52.212-4 Contract Terms and Conditions - Commercial Items
52.212-5 Contract Terms and Conditions Required Implementing Statutes or Executive Orders - Commercial Items

In accordance with 52.212-2, the fill-in applicable to this requirement is below:
52.212-2 Evaluation-Commercial Items.
As prescribed in 12.301(c), the Contracting Officer may insert a provision substantially as follows:
Evaluation-Commercial Items (Jan 1999)
(a) The Government will award a contract resulting from this solicitation to the responsible offeror whose offer conforming to the solicitation will be most advantageous to the Government, price and other factors considered. The following factors shall be used to evaluate offers:
(i) Technical Capability
(ii) Price
In accordance with 52.212-5, the following clauses are applicable to this requirement:
52.225-1 Buy American Act - Supplies (February 2009)
52.232-33, Payment by Electronic Funds Transfer-Central

New equipment only; no remanufactured products. No partial shipments
Offer must be good for 30 calendar days after submission.
Offerors must have current Central Contractor Registration (CCR) at the time offer is submitted. Information can be found at www.ccr.gov.
This is a combined synopsis/solicitation for commercial items in accordance with Federal Acquisition Regulation Part 12, Acquisition of Commercial Items. The Government will award a commercial item purchase order to the offeror with the most advantageous offer to the government. All offerors must submit their best price and delivery capabilities.

Place of Delivery:
U.S. Department of Education
Office of Inspector General
c/o: Gary Pawlak, Special Agent
500 West Madison Street - Suite 1414
Chicago, IL 60661

Contracting Office Address:
550 12th Street, SW, 7th Floor
Washington, District of Columbia 20202

Okay so... anyone wanna speculate as to what this is about?

7 comments:

shanethacker said...

Got to get the kids to school some way. :)

They might be buying them for a security contractor? In my work, most of the equipment I use was bought by the federal government and is tracked in its inventory system. However, that's computer equipment, not shotguns, so I was surprised to see this as well.

It'd be interesting to see if arms purchases are common in other agencies, like the Department of Agriculture or the Smithsonian.

Anonymous said...

Perhaps it's one more step in the continuing evolution of the public schools into prisons for people who are too poorly educated to behave well because the government spends all its education money turning the schools into prisons for people who are too poorly educated to behave well...

AfterShock said...

The part that gets me is this -

14" LOP are designated as the only shotguns authorized for ED based on compatibility with ED existing shotgun inventory, certified armor and combat training and protocol, maintenance, and parts.

WHAT THE HELL?!?!? They apparently already have shotgun inventory, armor and combat training...

This makes no sense...and I am EXTREMELY saddened to think that my tax money for education - that SHOULD be going to better equipment and books for our schools - is being spent on weapons for who knows what...

Anonymous said...

Quite, quite bizarre. Those 14 inch barrels are also an ATF regulated item, making the guns a Class 2 weapon. As spec'd out they are an excellent combat shotgun but WTF the Dept of Ed needs them for is absolutely beyond me. Do they have their own federal investigators assigned to them? If so, are they fighting their way through Beirut neighborhoods to get to the schools they investigate? Or is the Dept of Ed gonna start teaching principals how to take care of active shooters before police response? (HA! righhhhht) Dunno.

Anonymous said...

Why doesn't Chris just ask the Dept. Of Education?

Thorhammer

Unknown said...

Why is the DOE using taxpayer money to but shotguns that taxpayers can barely purchase legally?

I called the DOE and received this e-mail shortly after:

[[Grant, Catherine to me

Thank you for your inquiry. The Office of Inspector General is the law enforcement arm of the U.S. Department of Education and is responsible for the detection of waste, fraud, abuse, and other criminal activity involving Federal education funds, programs, and operations. As such, OIG operates with full statutory law enforcement authority, which includes conducting search warrants, making arrests, and carrying firearms. The acquisition of these firearms is necessary to replace older and mechanically malfunctioning firearms, and in compliance with Federal procurement requirements. For more information on OIG's law enforcement authority, please visit our Web site at: www.ed.gov/oig.

The information is available on the front page of our site.

Thank you again for your inquiry.]]

Not cool.

Chris Knight said...

When the Department of Education is purchasing shotguns, we shouldn't have to be asking questions to begin with. The Department of Education should be telling us of its own accord why it needs the shotguns. It's not even mentioned in the purchase order.

I haven't had to ask, personally. It's been asked by many people since this came to light yesterday morning. And they haven't received an answer from the Department of Education.