Bangladesh, Nov. 8 -- In the weeks leading up to the tragic Uvalde, Texas, school shooting in 2022, a gunman purchased 2,115 rounds of ammunition for his AR-15-style rifle. Every single round came from the Lake City Army Ammunition Plant, a US Army-owned facility located just outside Kansas City, Missouri. Later that same year, another shooter walked into a St. Louis high school carrying over 400 rounds from the same facility, killing a student and a teacher. These bullets, designed for battlefield use, were legally obtained and easily accessible through the civilian market.

The use of Lake City ammunition in crimes is not an isolated phenomenon. New data obtained by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) and th...