Posted on 09/02/2009 5:13:36 PM PDT by Red in Blue PA
LOS ANGELES - There’s a bull market for bullets.
Stacks of ammo, once piled high at gun shops across America, have dwindled. Prices paid by consumers for much sought-after Winchester .380-caliber handgun bullets (a common name for cartridges) have doubled. At weekend gun shows, trailers loaded with boxes of ammunition are drained within hours.
Budget-pressed police departments, which can’t be caught short, have increased their orders just to be safe, and the US military, fighting two wars, has seen its need for bullets quadruple in recent years.
Industry officials say the appetite for ammo in the United States is unprecedented.
Bullets are in demand as the United States’ interest in firearms has spiked. US gun sales are up in the aftermath of the 2008 presidential election in which the National Rifle Association poured millions of dollars into advertisements portraying Barack Obama as antigun and raising fears that gun sales might be restricted.
As a result, manufacturers are running their plants around the clock, seven days a week. Guns and ammo are in demand, but it is the bullets that are in short supply.
“Nobody has ever seen this kind of demand before,’’ said Lawrence Keane, senior vice president and general counsel of the National Shooting Sports Foundation Inc., which represents the largest ammo suppliers in the country. “Right now, the plants are operating full bore to get the product on the shelf.’’
The foundation estimates there will be about 2 billion more American-made bullets produced this year over last year’s 7.5 billion. But customers wouldn’t know it by the lack of supply on the shelves at local gun stores.
(Excerpt) Read more at boston.com ...
Could have picked up 2 more .380 boxes but left them for someone else.
I made a large purchase myself just last week.
How can a person be a good COMMUNITY ORGANIZER if you don’t have enough guns and ammo to organize around?
>> Appetite for guns sends bullet sales shooting
Mixed metaphor.
If I was writing the headline, I’dve said, “Lust for guns...”
It’s not going to slack off for a long time either.
I do my part.
Maybe...Gun sales shooting up while sales of ammo explode. :)
I’ve had pretty good luck buying pellets for my airguns. Everything else is a crapshoot.
I bought ammo in quantity years ago when it was relatively cheap. Of the 11 different calibers I store, three of them I bought in fairly large quantity.
My local only has a few boxes of the off-size stuff. Not even much in the way of .22LR. They do, for some reason, have plenty of .223 Remington.
I have a .380 colt automatic onhand to salute any midnight visitors. It’s a superb little pistol.
I need to find some 9mm for my wife. She wants to take an advanced gun defense course and needs at least 500 rounds.
Actually the big scare is over, for the time being. Everything is available, albeit, at a higher price. Can go through the roof tomorrow though.
All it will take is for one of Zero’s goons to mouth off!
Worse comes to worse I can always fall back on cap and ball!
They don't know what they're writing about.
No doubt. It can start again within minutes.
We've never had such anti-American, commie adminstration in power before...go figure.
Then lock and load.
I picked up a box the other day. The guys were laughing and joking like I won the lottery. It was pretty funny, I'd go back to that shop. Know their stuff and they're hilarious.
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