This follows exactly what I said, it was a U.S. Arsenal, federally administered through the U.S. Ordnance Department, for the sake of the States/Territories; and making a profit from the sales of what they produced to the public was part of the system. These were not caches of arms meant for Federal use, however, there seems to be a thought that Federal forces could temporally check-out arms, as long as they returned them back to the arsenal from which they were issued. This was the problem with the Charleston Arsenal and the people of Charleston when Foster (U.S.A.) tried to get arms issued for the Fort Sumter workers (out-of-state contractors), they were not local troops and the fear was they were depleting an asset needed to quell any local insurrection and could be used against the people of Charleston.

David