Posted on 01/22/2021 1:21:09 PM PST by blam
It is certainly a sign of the times. In 2020, the FBI processed a record 39.7 million firearm background checks, the most recorded since the agency began keeping tabs in 1998. On top of that, checks exclusively related to the sale of firearms also reached a record high last year, totaling 21 million, according to firearm trade organization National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF).
The gun and ammo craze, which is being pinned on the COVID-19 crisis, the violent rioting that gripped major cities in recent months, and the new Biden administration, has anyone looking to get their hands on ammunition going to extraordinary lengths as a nation wide shortage strikes the market.
A recent report out of Florida highlights how far people are going for ammo, and why …
People started lining up in front of the door at Academy Sports + Outdoors in Lake Mary as early as 2 a.m. on Monday waiting for the doors to open at 9 a.m.
When FOX 35 News asked several of those in line what they were waiting for, they all answered “ammo.” Many voiced that they are afraid of what new gun laws could come under a new administration.
“I think we all believe Biden is going to take it away from us too,” David Godkin said. – Fox 35 Orlando
Similar stories are also coming out of Texas where empty shelves that once held ammo now collect dust as supply fails to meet the high demand …
“It’s been a nationwide hit,” said an employee at the Outdoorsmen. “We’ve been told that there is a nearly billion dollar backup on orders from manufacturers.”
He thinks that this backup won’t be resolved until the third quarter of 2022 and “that’s if we’re lucky.”
Even huge retail stores like Academy have had to limit ammunition purchases. “Ammunition Limits: Three Units Overall On All Handgun and Rifle Calibers Per Customer Per Day” states a large sign in Academy’s ammo section of the store. – San Angelo Live
Further highlighting the lengths people are going for ammo is Jordan Sillars of MeatEater.com …
Desperate gun owners have driven hours to pick up just a few boxes of .223 Rem. They’ve learned the schedules of ammunition delivery trucks and rotated between store clerks to purchase more than the store’s two-box limit. One of my relatives (who will remain nameless) even asked his friend to stash ammunition in a fishing tackle box while shopping at a local big-box store. When fellow ammo seekers asked my relative where he found two boxes of 9mm among the empty shelves several hours later, he just shrugged and walked away.
Perhaps summing up the ongoing scramble for ammo better than anyone is Mark Oliva, director of public affairs for the NSSF, who compared what’s happening to the hysterical rummage for toilet paper we saw at the start of the Covid-19 scare.
“You can’t discount the toilet paper effect that’s going on,” Oliva said in an interview with Meat Eater. “People are concerned they aren’t going to get what they need when they need it.”
Neil Davies, marketing director for ammunition maker Hornady, says that the COVID-19 crisis was a “watershed moment” for his company that recorded their biggest sales month ever in March.
“When people started to wonder how COVID was going to impact their lives, they flocked to all kinds of things in order to makes sure they would be taken care of: toilet paper, ammunition, guns, hand sanitizer,” Davies told Meat Eater.
When social unrest began in major American cities, the demand for ammunition “hit third gear,” says Davies. He would add that the shortage is “going to go deep into 2021. That’s a fact. This entire calendar year.”
Adding to the struggle is the price of ammo which has soared over the past year …
Across town, at Volusia Top Gun, it’s a similar story. On Sunday, the staff showed up at work to find 60 people waiting in line before the store opened. Owner Ron Perkinson said his store is typically full of inventory — one of the biggest in Florida. While he does have some weapons on the shelves, the majority of his gun cases are empty.
***
He estimated that his business has been up another 100%. Ammunition is the biggest seller at Volusia Top Gun. Due to supply and demand, his suppliers have raised their prices so he has had to raise his too. A small box of 9mm ammunition that was selling for $14 maximum at this time last year, is now selling for $37.99 and he can barely keep it stock. He has had to limit the number of boxes he’s selling at times.
“I could have done 300% more if I had the inventory. I’m turning away a lot of people just for lack of inventory,” Perkinson explained. – Fox 35 Orlando
As we highlighted back in November, the Biden administration is eyeing gun control measures that could force millions of American’s to collectively cough up tens of billions dollars in taxes as millions of rifles and magazines now in their possession could become subject to a tax under the National Firearms Act.
The center piece of Biden’s gun plan is to place a ban on the manufacture and sale of “assault weapons,” while bringing the regulation of possession of such firearms under the 1934 National Firearms Act.
Currently, the NFA of 1934 applies to fully automatics firearms, silencers and short-barreled rifles. But Biden would drag “assault weapons”, meaning semiautomatic rifles, pistols and shotguns (think the AR-15) along with “high capacity magazines”, which have generally been understood to be magazines that carry more than 10 rounds, under the act.
According to a National Shooting Sports Foundation report on firearm production figures, Americans in total own at least 20 million rifles and 150 million ammunition magazines that would be subject to the NFA regulations if Biden’s plan were put in place.
Under the NFA, each rifle and each magazine would be taxed at $200 per item, costing American gun owners up to $34 billion dollars.
While Biden has not been very vocal as of yet in regard to gun control – but rather focusing on issues such as the pandemic, racism and domestic terrorism – one could suspect we are only one publicized “mass shooting” away from gun control legislation landing in the majority Democrat chambers of congress.
And as far as what new gun control legislation will mean for the supply issues related to ammunition, we likely do not need to explain what this means …
I swear, I glanced at the headline and though it said “Amino Acid Shortage.”
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Did you make arrangements to get some Amino Acid? <:<:<:
The surest way to ‘cause’ a shortage is to predict it enough and the sheep will make your prediction come true.
Kind of like putting an ‘old’ couch on the curb with a FREE sign.
It will rot before someone takes it.
Instead, put up a ‘Used Couch, good condition, $50 bucks’
sign, and someone will steal it.
Better to die on you feet where they have to pry the weapon from your cold dead hands after taking out a few, then on your knees begging to know where this train is taking you to?
Honestly I think your delusional to think the entire military of 1.3 million people stand a chance against 75 million pissed off gun owners. Sending in helicopters and Spectre aircraft to gun us all down is not great for optics. Thats why ANTIFA and BLM was never attacked by the guard.
Now, the best price I can find is 70 cents/rd. and that is hard to find.
Sounds eerily like my Academy.
Dictators never change the play book to power: cheat and use thuggery to force their way into power, immediately disarm the citizens and then imprison and possibly exterminate their opposition, thus, they can’t be removed and will be in power and control for ever. Sound familiar?
That’s odd - I did the same thing
“I think a lot of our military would not go door to door and take our guns. Police wouldn’t do it either.”
They would.
“I think a lot of our military would not go door to door and take our guns. Police wouldn’t do it either.”
They would.
Darn right they would, and will. Your local police, too. The majority of them will do what their told because they care more about their pensions and dental plans than they care about you and your “ rights”.
Also, if they come for your guns, your life is already over, you’ve been put on a list and your life is forfeit already, so you might as well go down fighting and take as many of them as you can before you fall.
There are way more of us than them, their casualties will mean much more, and have a bigger effect on their morale than ours will on us. You just have to have the guts to do it.
You are probably like me, and love support the police, but if they can be turned into a tool of the Bidenites in DC to do their wet work, they are no longer your friends.
Don’t register your guns, don’t sell them to the government, keep them.
Let’s just say my guns didn’t go overboard in no childish boating accident.
“Use the 22 and a old marlin riffle.”
My Marlin 60 is brand new!!!
.22lr is approaching $1 a rd for the good stuff like CCI minimags!
Basically, if you arent stocked up by now you are out of luck, it will cost a fortune to keep shooting.
Will be 5 years before primers become available again, so reloading is finished too.
...and just wait till Joe signs that EO to stop ovefseas ammo shipments!
.223 will be $4 a rd, if you can find it...so now is a REALLY bad time to sell anything! lol
This needs to be posted everywhere.
Instead of buying more guns and ammo, I think the patriotic gun owners’ time would be much better spent exercising the right under the 2nd Amendment to organize and form a local militia. Nothing is more illusory than millions of gun owners thinking they can protect their life and liberty armed and alone, while stumbling around in an unorganized manner and getting in one another’s way.
I saw a flier at a bus stop. It was titled, “asymetrical warfare.” Said to find all local dem leaders, meida people (newspaper reporters, etc) and local “Indivisible” members now. Get their pictires and addresses. They are all proudly on facebook. That if “they” start raiding local gun owners... don’t go after cops or troops, fight back asymetrically. Not sure what they meant exactly.
I don’t know who wrote it or put it there, and never picked it up. Too scared. I’m not the type to do that kind of stuff. And don’t know anyone who is. But if anyone sees such a flyer, leave it alone. Could be a trap. Spread the word.
This is a public service announcement.
Yeah, no.
Wolverines!
So taking an oath to defend the constitution would mean nothing to the military and police. Obviously when the politicians take the oath, it means nothing.
I feel the same way, although I still will take 100 rounds of my least used/preferred rounds and hit the range.
I try to stop periodically and get whatever is available in whatever 1-3 box increments they allow.
“Liberty Loving Americans” are mostly a relic of past. Today’s “Americans” love their lockdowns and socialist/communists.
Mine was brand new 37 years ago. There is the 10/22. I hear there is a banana clip for it that may hold more than 10. Other than that barrel magazine.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.