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WASHINGTON — Five Senate Democrats are demanding the Trump administration explain how munitions made at a government-owned but privately operated factory in Missouri are ending up in the hands of Mexican drug cartels.
Sens. Adam Schiff, D-Calif.; Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass.; Alex Padilla, D-Calif.; Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill.; and Peter Welch, D-Vt., sent a letter Thursday to acting Attorney General Todd Blanche and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. The senators are asking for a formal inquiry by the agencies into the matter.
They want to know how many domestic and international criminal shootings have involved ammunition manufactured at the Lake City Army Ammunition Plant, what percentage of Lake City’s profits come from commercial sales and what steps are being taken to ensure that munitions made at the plant are not obtained by the cartels.
“We need visibility into how the sales of U.S. military ammunition are ending up in the hands of Mexican cartels or being used to kill people on American streets,” Schiff told Spectrum News in an exclusive statement. “The Trump administration needs to address the lack of accountability over the commercial sales of ammunition manufactured at this government owned-facility.”
The plant, located near Kansas City, is the largest producer of ammunition for the military in the country, manufacturing billions of rounds each year. But rounds produced at the plant are also sold to American consumers, as well as the Mexican government, as part of an agreement between the Army and the contractor who runs Lake City.
“Almost half of all the .50-caliber rifle rounds seized by Mexican authorities over more than a decade” came from Lake City Army Ammunition Plant, according to an investigation by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists.
Thirteen Mexican police officers were killed in one instance, and four police officers, two civilians and 19 cartel members died in another.
Americans have purchased thousands of rounds of ammunition used in violent crimes, including the 2022 Uvalde, Texas, elementary school shooting, that were also produced at Lake City, a revelation reported by The New York Times last year.
“It is incumbent upon the government to ensure that rounds manufactured at its facilities and not employed for the primary purposes of the U.S. military’s use are not allowed to fall into the hands of those who would use them against Americans and other victims,” the senators wrote. “We are concerned that the ongoing lack of accountability, oversight, and transparency over commercial sales of ammunition manufactured at this taxpayer-funded facility is directly enabling assailants and transnational gangs to use these weapons to assail our communities.”
Earlier this year, Warren and a group of Democratic House lawmakers introduced a bill to “prohibit Department of Defense contractors from selling military-grade assault weapons and ammunition to civilians.” The same bill was introduced two years ago but never received a vote.
“Americans’ tax dollars should not be used to fuel gun violence,” Warren said at the time of the bill’s release. “Congress must step in to keep Americans safe, and that means stopping the U.S. military and giant defense contractors from selling weapons of war to cartels, criminal groups and mass shooters that terrorize our communities.”
Gun safety and antiviolence advocacy groups such as Giffords are concerned about the continued sale of these rounds of ammunition to Americans and applauded the inquiry Democrats are pursuing.
“We are deeply concerned that military-grade ammunition has been found at scenes of mass shootings throughout the country," Danniyal Ahmed, senior federal policy attorney for Giffords Law Center, said in a written statement. "For years, the gun industry has been marketing to Americans, urging them to get their ‘man-card’ and using military-like images to sell these types of weapons to civilians. These influences have been the catalysts for horrific acts of violence. We applaud Senator Schiff for demanding answers to this alarming trend.”
Spectrum News reached out to the Justice and Defense departments for comment on the senators’ inquiry. A Pentagon official did not confirm receipt of the letter but said in a statement that “as with all congressional correspondence, the Department will respond directly with the authors.” The Justice Department has not responded.
