My best friend owns a gunshop. You are wrong.
I always get a chuckle from this type of post. Does the original poster think that anyone who is willing to pay exorbitant prices for ammo online is going to pay any attention to his wishes that they stop doing it?
I have my own theory... a bunch of newbies who haven't been through this type of thing several times before have bought cheap rimfire guns and are now willing to pay a premium price to stock up on ammo that doesn't kill a bunny or crow any better than a decent pellet gun. A shortage of .22 ammo is far more funny than crisis.
If you need a cheap firearms like experience just shoot pellets or bb’s until the supply catches up with the demand. I have friend who has an air rifle that shoots home cast 180 grain .45 caliber “pellets” at approximately 800 fps. He charges it with a high pressure scuba tank. One slug split a 2 inch thick piece of wood in half that he was using for a target when he came to visit.
Hog taken down with large bore air rifle.