Where has All the Ammo Gone?

Two weekends ago, my son and I went to our local shooting range to fire off the last 200 rounds of ammo we had for our 22 rifles. We had not been to the range in a couple of months and had fun punching holes in targets I printed off from our laser printer.

It was only when I went to Dick’s Sporting goods to pick up some more bullets a week later that I started to realize something was amiss.

The clerk in the Natick Store told me all he had was smoothbore birdshot.  Twenty gauge shotgun shells, he had plenty – rifle bullets – none.  And I mean, none.

Same at the Northborough store. The clerk at Dick’s in Northborough told me it was totally weird. He would get 20 boxes of 22LR ammo a week. It would come in at 9 AM and be sold out at 9:30 AM.

Same at Walmart. At Natick Outdoors Store – they had not seen any in two months.

I did eventually find some rounds to purchase at about double the price of a year ago. Wow.

In retrospect, I think the other folks at the range must have thought my son and I were nuts to be shooting off so many rounds.  Shows you how often I buy ammunition.

What is also weird is that 22LR ammunition is not the sort of ammo you’d use to hold off the storm troopers in the BLACK HELICOPTERS or to stave off the hordes of brain eating zombies.  22LR bullets are the kind you use for target shooting or plinking tin cans or maybe going after gophers that are eating your garden veggies if you live far enough out in the country (Chief Gordon would frown on me if I did that here in Westborough, although my wife would appreciate it. . . I think).

There has been a high demand for ammo ever since Obama got elected in 2008 but since Newtown, any kind of rifle or pistol ammo has been flying off the shelves. Ammunition manufacturers have been slow to ramp up production to meet the demand, mostly because they don’t want to get caught in a bust with excess inventory and workers they would have to lay off (which happened in 2009 when everyone realized Obama was not taking their guns away).

Despite all the conspiracy theories put out there by those great Congressional intellects like Senator James Inhofe of Oklahoma, which has it that the “government” is buying up all the ammo to keep it from law-abiding gun owners, the fact is that it is being brought up by actual gun owners or “entrepreneurs” trying to make a quick buck by cashing in on the scarcity. 

Granted, the U.S. Government does have first dibs on all ammunition produced, and has orders in for something like 5 billion rounds, but that procurement is spread over five years and these sorts of contracts have been in place since World War II.  Besides – what would the military or homeland security want with 22 ammo?

So, right now, there is a shortage of ammunition for the rest of us law-abiding gun owners (and many police departments) who were too slow off the mark to do what my Mom used to warn me about when sales were on at the grocery stores:

“Get it before the hoarders do”