I have been saving some money for a long while and thought I would buy myself a birthday present since Biden is messing around with our gun rights. This guy is a real idiot and I still have a hard time believing that the American people voted him as president, but that is another story for another day. It has been at least ten years since I have purchased a firearm for myself. Now I have bought some for my two sons since that time but not for me! So I went down to some neighborhood gun stores to see if I could replace a 44 magnum revolver that I sold some years ago or purchase a Ruger Mini 14 that I have wanted for many years. And to my surprise, the handgun showcases and rifle racks that once were filled with firearms were pretty sparse or empty. Then I went to find some ammunition and that was even worse. And what’s more, peculiar is that it did not matter the store, they were all that way. Boy was I bummed! Well, let’s explore this subject and see what was the cause for this to happen.
Why No Guns Or Ammo?
As I looked into this situation I thought I would find four or five good reasons why this has happened. But it boils down to one main issue. If you remember, as the pandemic began to take hold, we had widespread civil unrest, buildings were being burned, stores were looted, crime rates were rising. With all this happening, people were beginning to fear the virus, fear food shortages, product shortages and the fear of riots, and fear of their own personal safety. Thus guns and ammo began to fly off the shelves, in record numbers. People that never once before thought about firearms were buying their first firearms and plenty of ammunition to go with them.
What Were Some Other Contributing Factors In The Firearm Situation?
The pandemic in itself was not enough, then you throw in the national election, plus the topic of gun control and you have many reasons that affect people’s emotions and that brings incentives to people to add some firearms to your households. Joe Biden’s desire to have a federal gun registration, wanting a $200 tax on sporting rifles, placing a ban on magazines over 10-rounds make the pro-gun community a little concerned.
Is The Ammunition Shortage A Way To Create Gun Control?
A thought that came to me was we can buy all the firearms we want but if we cannot buy any ammunition for those firearms then we cannot use them. Is our government smart enough to make this happen as a form of gun control? Probably not! Well, then why is it happening? The real reason is the old terms supply and demand! With all these new gun owners out there that have purchased ammo, that could make a dent in our ammunition supply. If we put a number up there for you to see, there were 7 million people that have purchased new firearms since March 2020 and if each one had purchased two boxes of ammo (100 rounds), that would be 700 million new rounds that were taken out of the ammunition supply. This means the ammunition suppliers would have to make 700 million more bullets than they normally produced just to bring things back to normal. This requires a long time to do this.
What Other Factors Might Affect The Ammo Shortage?
During the time period of the pandemic, we have seen many products disappear from our grocery stores due to panic, why should ammunition be any different? We saw hoarders and scalpers with toilet paper, hand sanitizers, disinfectant wipes, not to mention food. So now we can add ammunition to our list. Panic buyers thought that they may not see their ammo due to the high demand therefore they bought all they could. Greedy customers were buying ammunition just to buy it, even if they did not need it. Then there were the scalpers who bought all they could so they could sell it at an inflated price, just to make a profit.
So Now What?
Are things going to get better? Will the price of ammunition ever come back to normal? I wish I had a crystal ball that I could look into and get that answer. But I know that is not possible. I know that when hay prices went up due to drought conditions, they never really came back down to where they used to be and that’s a bummer! I do not know when supply and demand for ammunition will stabilize. But my guess is that these prices will come down but not to where they used to be. But the only thing that will help this situation is “time”. We need to be patient and wait it out. Eventually, the ammo supply will catch up to the demand, and then we will see what happens.
If you have any questions about this post or anything related to Everyday Carry (EDC), feel free to leave a comment below and I will be happy to get back to you.
All the best,
Larry
Founder of EDC Essentials