Posted on 04/08/2013 2:21:33 PM PDT by NoLibZone
ONTARIO -- Ammunition was the hot item Saturday as gun enthusiasts from around Southern California converged on the Ontario Convention Center for the first day of the two-day Crossroads of the West Gun Show.
The Ontario Convention Center was busy with some people arriving and others leaving with such purchases as walking sticks to firearms cases. But of all the items available, ammo was at the top of many shopping lists.
At one point, a line to purchase ammunition was snaking around the exhibit hall, said Bob Templeton, the owner of the gun show. It was taking about three hours for shoppers to make their way to the head of the line, he said.
Art Sheppard of San Jacinto bought magazines for an AR-15 rifle and some other items. He wanted to buy ammunition but the line was about two hours long at that point and Sheppard wasn't interested in investing that much time.
Dennis Mahan of Hesperia purchased ammunition of three different calibers.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailybulletin.com ...
Don’t think that this is a Government caused crises but am beginning to wonder just why all of these ammunition companies are performing so badly? Has this really caught them by surprise? Is the Government really buying so many rounds that they can not keep up?
They do seem to understand the problem and are producing at maximum capacity (so they say) but it still does seem a bit suspicious. I sure hope that they will overcome future runs on their products.
The government takes a teeny tiny fraction of the commercial ammo makers total production. The current shortage of ammo on retailers shelves is due to gullible folks believing all of the conspiracy theories and panic buying any and all of the ammo they can find - recently at absurd prices.
We have met the enemy; it is us - not the DHS,
Get serious! They have never produced more ammo than recently. ATK, Winchester and Remington are working every machine 24-7 and still falling behind.
No prudent manufacture would make massive capital investments to handle a short term aberration in sales. The ammo industry has historically had over capacity and each well remembers the crash after previous booms.
Ammunition Manufacturers Producing '24 Hours a Day' to Match DemandSo why the shortage? Ammo producers like Hornady say the cause isn't government orders but a "politically-induced buying panic." Although producers say they've seen buying panics in the past, nothing compares to what we're experiencing now.
Is the Government really buying so many rounds that they can not keep up?
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Not according to the following from Sen. Coburn that he got in response to his question to DHS. Take if for what it’s worth.....
http://www.gsnmagazine.com/node/28830?c=federal_agencies_legislative
DHS tallies up ammo purchases for Sen. Coburn
snip
The charts provided by the agency show DHS bought a total of 148 million rounds for its seven component agencies in 2010 at a cost of $47 million. In fiscal 2011, it bought 108 million rounds for $38 million. In fiscal 2012, the agency bought 103 million rounds for $36 million.
It said it has budgeted $37 million in fiscal 2013 to buy ammunition for its component agencies.
end snip
The complete response to Sen. Corburn’s letter in PDF format.
That assumes we're not going to need all that ammo.
No, we are buying so much the Government is having problems getting a supply. It’s a bank run with ammo being the currency in question. Its just like before a hurricane comes in. There is a months worth of toilet paper on the shelves, but it’s all sold in a couple of days.
Discounting the “hurricanes scare the s**t out of me” effect of course.
I don’t think DHS is the cause of the ammo shortage either. However, the Federal Government and certain state governments are causing an understandable urgency/panic by the proposed and actual legislation limiting gun and ammo purchases. So, people in Texas have less to worry about than those in Ny, Connecticut, or California, where I think this story is from.
Gun controllers have started to figure out that going after guns is harder than affecting ammo supplies.
Heh, well did not say that... Just a bit surprised that American ingenuity has not been able to keep up with demand. To be questioning these days is not abnormal.
Yes, I actually think you’ve hit on the problem - Obama has scared the public so badly that it has caused a run on buying ammunition. Am just surprised that today increased manufacturing has not been able to keep up with demand.
Guess I’d call this a result of most manufacturing being outside of American control - so we are now in a new age.
Trillions of rounds ought to do it! ;-)
So, the corollary would be ...
Communists scare the lead out of me? ;-)
*shrug* It’s a start...
Whenever a politician says he is taking a position because a majority of his constituents supports it, he is either a) lying, or b) has no principles.
Anybody who has had to wait in a line to buy gasoline knows the scoop on this. It’s called a “panic.”
There was a recent article saying something about the gubmint DIRECTING the ammo mfgrs to sell ONLY to the gubmint. (Anyone know of a link?).
On the other hand, from time to time some ammo squeaks by and gets on the store shelves, albeit for 5-10 minutes.
I think the shortage has been caused by the No.1 “Gun Salesman of the Year”, Odumbo. IMO the gun owners and shooters are the actual ones gobbling up any ammo that they see and in preparation for what MIGHT be on the horizon should Odumbo generate another one of his famous Executive Orders to grab ALL guns.
Local firearms store owners say that they haven’t received commonly used ammunition or reloading supplies for a long time, and like last time, “just can’t get” the stuff. Some large distributors also go long periods of time without receiving shipments of ammunition. Keep your eye on that fact, folks.
The winning bidders on the various contracts that have been reported over at FedBizOps may, per their contracts, be obligated to fill government orders first. However, not all the ammo manufacturers won government bids. Do you have a list of the ones that did?
And a number of us stocked up...a couple years ago. Before the tragic boating accident. Ammo is short because we have a crapload of new converts.
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