11 February 2009

Florida Ammunition Shortage The Tip Of The Iceberg

Updated: Wednesday, May 20, 2009, 2:23 pm -- The National Shooting Sports Foundation issued an email recently alerting dealers that most manufacturers are working three shifts, 24/7 to try and meet the demand, but they are still six months behind in supplying enough ammunition to dealers.

The Huffington Post reported earlier this month that the shortage is driven by the wars in Iraq and Afganistan and police agencies stepping up training after the 9/11 terrorist attacks upon the United States. Interestingly, the Post does not mention that private citizens have been stocking up on ammunition based on President Obama's well documented history of support for gun control measures and concerns over civil unrest in uncertain economic times. Frankly, many police agencies across the nation have curtailed their ammunition purchases because their budgets are close to being broke, meaning there is little extra money left for practice ammunition. Here in Central Ohio, at least one big police agency has scaled back the hours the range is open for qualifying -- not because of a shortage of ammo but because it simply doesn't have the budget for purchasing ammunition for practice. Which has resulted in officers buying and using their own ammunition for qualification purposes.

Further, there is a raw materials shortage. Which any hand-loader will tell you has been the case for nearly a year. Do you know what the world price for scrap brass is today?

And so on . . .



*********************

Actually, the shortage is across the United States, but in Florida in particular firearms dealers and outdoor sports retailers are having a tough time keeping ammunition on the shelves. Worse, they are having trouble getting deliveries.




As pretty much everyone knows, sales of firearms and ammunition are up across the nation after the change in administrations in the White House. The anti-gun history of both the president and most of his key advisers, as well as the leadership of Congress, has thinking people ..well, thinking. And they are acting.



Its not surprising. Even here in the Buckeye State firearms sales are up, and people who have never before owned firearms are taking safety, marksmanship and CCW classes. Attendance at gun shows is up, as well, as people become more enlightened about the very liklihood of restrictions on either firearms purchases or possession. I have met people from urban areas and suburbs, alike, all saying the same thing. They have never been to a gun show before and they don't like the administration's nor the Congress' viewpoints on firearms and gun control.



It used to be said that Bill Clinton armed America when he pushed through the ban on so-called "assault weapons" in the early 1990s, and talked of restrictions on civilian access to ammunition. He is solely responsible for guns and ammo flying off the shelves over those next several years. Today, it is Obama and Company who are arming America. Its not about race, its not about a political party. It is about the Second Amendment and a right that an increasing number of Americans have never thought about . . . until now. It is about a president and his minions trying to have it both ways on the one civil right that protects the entire Bill of Rights.


Here in Ohio we are fortunate to have a pro-gun democrat governor in Ted Strickland. But his lieutentant governor, Lee Fisher, is not so friendly to lawful firearms ownership. Fisher, a former national board member of Handgun Control Inc., now known as the more civil-sounding (but just as dangerous) Brady Campaign, is forming an exploratory committee to look into a 2010 run for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by George Voinovich. Voinovich didn't like CCW, but he never pushed anti-gun legislation. Fisher, on the other hand, would likely be an advocate for increased gun control, a theory which has yet to prove it can do anything to fight crime.



There have been spot shortages around the nation regarding ammunition. With so few ammunitino manufacturers left in the U.S., and the U.S. military being the biggest customer right now, don't look for self defense, hunting and sporting ammo to be plentiful anytime soon.



15 comments:

Anonymous said...

aw shit

Anonymous said...

Any one surprised

Home on the Range said...

I used to go to the range weekly and shoot 200-300 rounds. Now, once a month, as it's getting harder and harder to replace it. I'd rather skip designer coffee and eating out than not go shooting, but budget notwithstanding, if you can't find it, you can't find it.

Reloading? Getting hard to find supplies for that.

Anonymous said...

Obama can go screw himself along with his anti-gun buddy Eric Holder.

Anonymous said...

bought a new gun today and was limited to 2 boxes of ammo , they would only sell ammo with the purchase of a gun, and it wasn't even quality ammo , they said they had no idea when they would be getting ammo , it is a day to day situation.

Anonymous said...

I live in Eugene Oregon. I just replaced my older p89 with a new sr9, that gun took a month of watching many local gun shops and having my FFL check his sources as well.
I have seen almost no pistol ammo on any shelves during that month.
One local chain sporting goods store had two boxes of Blazer 44mag and nothing else. Saturday I went to several vendors here and found not 1 single box of 9mm!

Tom W said...

Democrat and gun enthusiast here (we do exist). I just ordered some reloading equipment (lee reloading kit, 38 spl dies and bullets) on line at Cabela's and got a message that the order is going to be held up for a week or two due to a back order.

Anonymous said...

I ordered 38 spl reloading dies from MidwayUSA 2 moths ago... still on backorder. If they don't have it, no-one does. Scary folks...

Anonymous said...

Who believes this is a totally consumer driven shortage? ARe we stupid? My gosh, if that were the case, you would expect the ammunition manufacters to be hiring lots of people. I just read an article from the "CDI" from 1998 discussing how to limit small arms by "choking" the availabitly of ammuniton, stating that guns with no ammunition are merely metal clubs. Except it is harder to get the public stirred up about it, not as obvious as taking away the guns.

Anonymous said...

O.K. here is the problem - read back at the other blog posts, we are all SCARED and that is what one might call panic buying. It is NOT just the ammunition that people purchased but also a dramatic increase in gun sales. So what we need to do is calm down some and wait for the supply to come back up here in 6 months or so. I was just in a small country store in Nebraska and they were stocked full of everything except .357 and .45 lc. Now as for blaming the war or police departments on shortages, that is just nuts cops and soldiers don't shoot the .45 long colt so that would not be the cause! The cause is driven by panic buying and there is shortage due to that. Simple supply and demand. Buy a reloader, go to an auction site and pay more, or be patient.

Anonymous said...

I also think that the story line of being a consumer based shortage is unlikely. No one has bullets anywhere. And, no one is talking about it. Search the NRA website on Ammunition Shortage. Zippo.

Anonymous said...

Ummm... just go on-line and order your ammo, like I do.

http://www.ammunitiontogo.com/catalog1/product_info.php/pName/50rds-38-special-winchester-super-clean-nt-110gr-flat-point

Brent Greer said...

Anonymous, thanks for the note. But up until recently -- and for many, many months -- you couldn't even buy ammunition online. Everyone was sold out. Even the manufacturers of hand-loading equipment were sold out of components for home manufacture of ammo. It has been a crazy time. Thanks again for the update that ammunition is now flowing to the online sellers!

Ammo Allen said...

Wow, I did not realize how extensive the shortage on ammunition in that area was. This probably makes it difficult to find all types of ammunition, even the more popular kinds such as .223 ammo. Thanks for the update on these matters.

S. Ammunition for sale said...

Thank you for this blog post! I can't help but wonder is there an ammunition shortage nationwide!? Is there a specific reason there is no ammo for sale? I guess it's time we get tricky. http://MilitaryShooters.com