.22 Ammunition takes dedicated, extremely expensive machines to manufacture. The manufacturing capacity cannot be increased easily and quickly. The political crises created by the Obama administration have bumped up the demand for .22 ammunition for the reasons that you have mentioned.
The demand for ammunition stems from a fairly new awareness of multitudes of the American public about what my father passed on to me about 1960. Ammunition shortages happen, and it is a good idea to have a stockpile. The uncertainty of the Obama administration, the attack on second amendment rights, and world wide conflicts escalating with the current administration channeling a combination of Neville Chamberlain and the Muslim Brotherhood make it hard for any but the most obstinately polyannish to be unconcerned.
There are about 80-100 million American gun owners. Millions of them are new, thanks to the Obama administration. A majority of them own a .22. Rimfire ammunition is not practically reloadable (yes, there were a few kits sold in the 1980’s). Most people did not buy 5,000 rounds as a strategic reserve. Most probably had less than a box on hand. Suddenly, tens of Millions of people became aware and thought that a thousand rounds of .22 would be nice to have. Maybe a couple of thousand. Demand for .22 has historically run under 4 billion rounds a year in the United States, which is by far the largest market in the world. My friend Alan Korwin reports that the U.S. manufacturing capacity is 4.2 billion rounds a year.
Suppose 50 million Americans decided that they would like to have 1,000 rounds of .22 on hand for a rainy day, rather like I did in the 1970s. That is 50 billion cartridges, or about 12 times the annual manufacturing capacity for .22 ammunition in the United States. My observations show me that virtually every .22 manufacturing plant around the world is running flat out making .22 ammunition for the American market, and it all gets snapped up as soon as it becomes available, at prices about three times the rate of even a year and a half ago.
Basic economics: when demand outstrips supply, prices go up until the demand drops to supply levels. This puts money in the hands of suppliers, who then ramp up production to increase supply. It is happening, but it will take a while.
http://gunwatch.blogspot.com/2014/03/ammunition-availability-shortages-and.html
Years ago, I attended a number of Appleseed events including one of their week-long boot camps. Their blog suggested bringing a 22LR long gun in addition to a personal “battle rifle”. As I’m sure you already know, their pick for the 22 is the venerable Ruger 10/22. After some modifications, it becomes the Appleseed “Liberty Rifle”.
I did the calculations, and the math told me the savings on 22LR ammo vs the .223 ammo I would normally have shot would be enough to pay for the Ruger. So, that’s exactly what I did. Bought the Wal-Mart 10/22 special, dressed it up with Tech Sights and some Volquartsen thingees...and lots of 22 ammo. One of the best weapons decisions I’ve made. Not to mention...it’s just a lot of fun to shoot.
I fear the shortage has put a crimp in that aspect of the Appleseed program.
I haven’t bought any ammo other than shotshells since 2012. Funny thing, prices on shotshells haven’t really changed much and, again, shotshells consume a lot more lead and powder than any common cartridges.