Opinion: Companion to Gen. Michael Flynn’s argument within the Washington Instances for national-security tariffs on metals.
America can’t defend itself with out metal and aluminum. Gen. Michael Flynn made that time loud and clear when he wrote that “relying on imported metal and aluminum to provide our tanks and planes makes America much less protected.”
He’s proper — BUT that very same warning applies much more urgently to the uncooked supplies behind America’s ammunition: lead, brass, and copper.
Each rifle spherical, each pistol cartridge, each coaching field, each defensive load — all of it is dependent upon these three supplies. If international governments or international provide chains decelerate, price-gouge, or shut us out, America’s ammo provide evaporates in a single day.
Metal and aluminum matter for tanks.
Lead, brass, and copper matter for the armed citizen and the American soldier.
If we’re severe about nationwide safety, we have to shield all six.
Ammunition Is Nationwide Safety
Flynn explains that “in an emergency, our incapability to ramp up home manufacturing represents a transparent and current hazard to U.S. nationwide safety.”
That’s not simply true for the Pentagon. It’s true for each police division, each civilian coaching vary, each state trooper, and each hid service within the nation.
Not like fighter jets, ammunition is consumed always.If manufacturing stops, there’s no reserve to fall again on.
America discovered this in 2020 when ammo grew to become virtually unimaginable to search out. The U.S. needed to depend on international copper, lead, zinc, and brass — and when international delivery stalled, costs skyrocketed, and cabinets went naked.
Flynn argues that “a robust and safe manufacturing provide chain… is crucial to American greatness.” Ammo is a part of that provide chain. With out home lead, brass, and copper, our ammunition provide turns into a hostage to international politics.
International Governments Already Manipulate Metallic Provides
Flynn cites Canada’s large subsidies: “Canada’s aluminum business has been propped up by almost $1 billion price of subsidies.”
The very same factor is going on within the international lead, brass, and copper markets:
China closely subsidizes its copper and brass industries.
Mexico provides huge portions of lead at artificially low costs.
India and Turkey flood the world with low cost copper merchandise.
Environmental guidelines within the U.S. shut down a number of home smelters, narrowing our provide even additional.
America is one delivery slowdown away from a large ammo scarcity — and never the sort attributable to election season panic shopping for. An actual one. A strategic one.
Flynn warns that permitting international metals to dominate creates a “clear and current hazard.” That applies double to ammunition. Bullets are the very last thing America ought to be importing.
Ammo Smelters Are Vanishing, Too — Simply Like Aluminum
Flynn notes that the U.S. went from 23 aluminum smelters in 2000 to only 4 in 2025.
The identical collapse is going on in ammunition metals:
In the meantime, international governments hold their very own manufacturing booming.
Flynn writes: “If we permit hundreds of U.S. manufacturing jobs to be worn out whereas redirecting earnings to a socialist nation, the forgotten women and men of America… can be pressured to pay the value.”
That’s precisely what occurred within the ammo business for the previous decade.
When home smelting dies, so does home ammunition independence.
Ammo Is the Entrance Line of Self-Protection & Nationwide Protection
Flynn is completely proper that “the instruments these patriots use to defend the homeland have to be American.”
Ammo is a type of instruments.
A rifle is ineffective and not using a cartridge.
A pistol is ineffective and not using a journal.
A soldier is ineffective and not using a resupply truck.
Lead, brass, and copper are the lifeblood of each firearm. Tariffs that shield these metals would shield:
army stockpiles
police departments
aggressive shooters
coaching academies
American hunters
and the tens of millions of accountable gun homeowners who hold this nation protected
Similar to metal and aluminum tariffs led to new smelters and new American jobs, comparable protections for ammo metals would:
reopen home refining vegetation
scale back provide dependence
stabilize and decrease ammo costs
hold stockpiles on U.S. soil
shield manufacturing jobs
and guarantee America can by no means be disarmed by international strain
The Case for a Tariff: Easy, Sturdy, & Pressing
Flynn states the core precept plainly:
“Relating to defending U.S. financial and nationwide safety, the straightforward actuality is that the U.S. should develop into self-sufficient as a nation and can’t depend on international nations for crucial metals.”
If metal and aluminum are crucial, then lead, brass, and copper — the spine of ammunition — are completely crucial.
A rustic that can’t produce its personal ammo shouldn’t be sovereign.
A inhabitants that can’t entry ammo can’t train its Second Modification rights.
A army that can’t replenish ammo can’t prevail.
America can’t outsource its bullets.
Conclusion: Put Lead, Brass, and Copper Beneath the Similar Defend
Flynn praises President Trump for saying: “We wish to have the ability to do it ourselves.”
That’s the fitting mindset for metal.
It’s the fitting mindset for aluminum.
And it have to be the mindset for ammunition.
If America needs to remain free, robust, and safe, the uncooked supplies behind each cartridge ought to be protected simply as fiercely — if no more so — than the metals behind our tanks and jets.
Metal and aluminum construct the machines of conflict. Lead, brass, and copper provide the ammunition that wins them.
It’s time to convey ammunition metals below the identical national-security protect.
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About Tred Regulation
Tred Regulation is your on a regular basis patriot with a deep love for this nation and a no-compromise method to the Second Modification. He doesn’t write articles for Ammoland each week, however when he does write, it’s normally about liberals Fing together with his proper to maintain and bear arms.
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