Over the past two years, the country’s ammunition shortage has closely mirrored the COVID-19 pandemic and economic shutdowns that ensued. Since March of 2020, hunters, target shooters, and even some police departments have struggled to obtain ammunition for a wide variety of firearms. And if they could find the ammo they need? It cost much more than normal.
So what are some of the contributing factors to the shortage? A rise in gun ownership, for starters, certainly affects the demand for ammunition. Many retail analysts believe the spike in gun ownership coincided with the tumultuous social unrest seen in the summer of 2020. Plus, when a Democratic president took office in January of 2021, many Americans rushed to stores for yet another wave of gun purchases; likely believing that the political party might try to severely hamper the 2nd Amendment. Some extreme theorists even believe that the government secretly manufactured the shortage, itself, to drive up prices and limit supply.
Other potential reasons for the shortage include consolidation in the industry, the 2020 bankruptcy of Remington, ongoing supply chain issues, and sanctions on Russian ammo by the State Department.
As COVID restrictions ease, many ammo manufacturers are ramping up production; but experts don’t think they’ll be able to keep up with demand, regardless. Many within the industry believe the shortages will continue through the end of the year, if not longer.
The ammo shortage boils down to basic supply and demand principles
According to the National Shooting Sports Federation, an incredible 5.4 million people in the United States purchased guns in 2021. One local gun shop owner in Louisiana said that demand rises during Democratic presidencies and subsides during Republican ones — a trend that has repeated itself for three or four decades.
“In this economy, you have fridges that are hard to get, you have sofas that are hard to get, you have cars, computer chips, there are a lot of things that are hard to get. Firearms and ammunition are no different,” Joshua Davis, the owner of Louisiana Firearms in Baton Rouge, said in a local interview. “It’s hard to get raw materials, and it’s hard to get raw materials to a factory. It’s hard to forge those materials to make whatever you’re trying to make.”
Another outdoorsman in neighboring Mississippi echoed the same sentiment. “It affects us on a daily basis,” outdoor store employee T-Voe Trosclair said. General ammo, hunting ammo … is very hard to get. Some we have and some we just can’t find at all.”
The rise in demand is causing ammo stores to raise prices by 30 or 40 percent. But even with the inflated pricing, many of the stores like Trosclair’s still have to turn people away.
“At least 100 calls a day where I have to say ‘No’. That’s never been the case before but we got to turn people away.”
*story by Outsider.com