The ammunition shortage that’s happening across the country is now creating fist fights within stores.
“I had a report yesterday of a fistfight in a sporting goods store, people trying to get rimfire ammunition off the shelf,” Mark DeYoung, the chief executive officer of ammo manufacturer Alliant Techsystems, told The Wall Street Journal.
Why are we seeing a shortage of ammo? In part, it’s due to the large increase in gun sales since Obama has taken office, with the biggest demographic being people in their 20s and 30s.
But we are also witnessing moves by our government to deplete ammo supply.
In 2013, DHS purchased at least 1.6 billion rounds of ammunition – enough to sustain a war the size of the Iraq war for 20+ years.
Recently the EPA declared that the lead in bullets should be controlled as a ‘toxic substance’ and has shut down the largest ore to lead producer in the western world.
The war on ammo is a war on the 2nd Amendment.
The ammunition shortage in the United States has gotten so bad that fistfights have broken out over bullets. If that wasn’t bad enough, Walmart stores are limiting customers to three ammunition purchases a day.
“I had a report yesterday of a fistfight in a sporting goods store, people trying to get rimfire ammunition off the shelf,” Mark DeYoung, the chief executive officer of Alliant Techsystems, a major ammo manufacturer, told The Wall Street Journal. “So there is still demand and customers are still very anxious to get product.”
At least three elements have contributed to the shortage: government stockpiling, panic buying in the wake of gun control legislation, and hoarding. A television station in Michigan reported it could be another year and a half before supply catches up with demand.
Alliant has had “record breaking profits” in the third quarter of 2013 (July through September). There have also been reports that ammunition has been stolen from mail shipments, The Journal’s Corporate Intelligence feature noted.
Civilian ammunition demand has increased so much that Alliant has actually converted part of a plant that makes bullets for the military to produce commercial ammo. Even with the increased production, DeYoung said the demand for ammunition is about 13 percent higher than the supply.
Local Gun Stores Report Shortage
Shooters are certainly feeling the pinch of the ammunition shortage. The Idaho State Journal reported that the cost of a brick of 22 shells in Pocatello has increased from $19.95 to $24.95 over the past year.
That is if gun owners can find the ammunition in the first place. The Davy Crockett Gun Shop in Pocatello only received nine boxes of .22 shells in its last shipment, the store’s owner Virginia Crockett, told The State Journal.
“That’s all we could get, .22 shells and #10 black powder caps are non-existent,” Crockett said. “The ammo companies report that they are working 24/7 to catch up.”
Another Pocatello gun store, Doc’s Gun Bar, is only staying open three days a week because it cannot get enough bullets to stay open, the State Journal reported. The store’s owner, Doc Blanchard, told reporter Debbie Bryce that he’s also seeing a shortage of brass and powder for reloading as well as bullets.
“Manufacturers are running 24/7 and they can sell everything that they make,” Blanchard said.
The CAL Ranch Store in Pocatello is limiting .22 ammunition purchases to one brick (525 rounds). The store’s manager, Arkie Clapier took this step to stop hoarding and panic buying.
“We are in the hoarding mentality,” Clapier said. “Ammo is hard to get and guns are hard to get right now.”
.22 is not the only kind of ammunition in short supply, .40 caliber hollow point bullets and .380 rounds are also hard to get, Tucker Bloxham the owner of High Desert Tactical told the newspaper.
He said four large boxes of .22 rounds he received on Jan. 29 sold out immediately. Blaxham said that was the first shipment of .22 ammunition he had received since September.
Walmart Limits Purchases
Jamie Leary, reporter for Montana TV station KPAK, got the following recorded message when she called Hornaday a major ammunition manufacturer:
“Order volume and demand for product has increased dramatically… we currently have delay in order processing, production and shipment of product.”
The amount of .22 ammunition that customers can buy at Walmart is currently limited to three boxes, Leary reported. A sign in a gun cabinet at a Clinton, Iowa, Walmart read: “Due to increased interest and to better accommodate our customers, there will be a limit of 3 boxes per 24 hour period of ammunition per customer.”
It looks like the ammunition shortage is real and it is not going to get any better any time soon. When even The Wall Street Journal starts reporting on ammunition shortages, the situation is bad.
Obama should give us what he is destroying, what a fool
And let’s not forget no more patriot missiles being made and we just used a few thousand to stop Isis and not done yet ,he is out to take us down
you people buying ammo up and tripling the price to make money are disgusting ! as far as i’m concerned your no better then people that overcharge for food and water in a crisis ! whay you goin to do with all your money when it can’t buy anything with it ?
The democratic communist party is set on disarming America and Obama is set on defending and supporting radical muslim doctrines. We have a problem. We need to elect Americans to office not traitors for the almighty dollar!
There is no shortage it obama some u vote in. U didn’t do sportman favor
what’s worse is the pentagon non-deep cover operations are made public to the us…they’re set the destroy over a billion dollars in ammo, rather than share it….obama’s the biggest assclown in american history
@Ruby Parks Wise you’d be wrong…CBO, Congressional Budget Office, that’s where the gov’t, by congress decree says what they are spending money on and how much…..
over 60 million fully automatic rifles. 1.2 billion rounds of ammo for DHS, 2.5 billion for the pentagon, and we just cut the tomahawk missile program by a lot – in 2015, the US gov’t will buy enough tomahawk missiles to fight two days against ISIS – 100 total missiles, and the second day we bombed Syria, we sent 54 tomahawk missiles….
obama= retard
Good grief ! Order online . I buy all my ammo online for a lot less
Small arms sales are on the rise .Along with bacon fat