Shortages

Commander Zero reports that he is having trouble finding guns and ammo. I am with him.

Last September, I bought some AR lowers and built them into some cheap ARs. In fact, I built four ARs with red dot sights on them for what it would cost to buy one now. Sure, they aren't high quality pipe hitters, but they are for people who may be helping me but don't have weapons of their own.

The only pistols at my LGS are high end revolvers and black powder stuff.

Nine millimeter is in almost nonexistent supply. In January I was buying Winchester 9mm for 15 cents a round. Now one of my normal suppliers, Georgia Arms, has no pistol ammunition at any price. Same with Brownell's. Not much better over at Palmetto State Armory, which only has Sig Elite at $2 a round, and Sellier and Bellot at 50 cents a round. Same story at SGammo. Pickings at LuckyGunner are slim as well, with prices there running between 50 cents to over a dollar a round. My LGS has ammo, but it is even more expensive and purchasers are limited to one box of ammo each. You can buy a second box if you are buying a gun at the same time.

All of this is caused because Americans are arming themselves like never before. There are the current troubles.

For that reason, I have decided to limit ammo expenditures. 50 rounds per month each of 380 and 9mm, and 20 rounds per AR to get them zeroed in. 22 is currently unlimited because I have so much of it. The rest of my ammo, I will hold on to. If the situation doesn't improve by November, then I will switch to 22 ammo and dry fire only. I have a MantisX for that.

I have been a gun owner and shooter for over 30 years. I remember buying UMC yellow box .45ACP at $8 for a 50 round box back when I bought my first .45 caliber handgun (a Smith and Wesson 4506). I have never seen such a shortage. Not during the Clinton years, not after Sandy Hook, not even during the HRC preelection scare.

Each year, Americans normally buy 27 million firearms and 10-12 BILLION rounds of ammunition. To put that in perspective, that is more ammunition than  was used by the entire US military during each year of World War 2, when the average was just over 10 billion rounds a year and the US armed forces had more than 15 million personnel.

We are only 7 months into the year, and Americans have bought 20 million firearms and every bit of ammo in the supply chain. There is currently more ammo out there in circulation than the entire US military used during any two years of World War 2. I don't know what production is, but demand is up. Way up.

I hope each and every one of you was smart enough to get and stock guns, ammo, and magazines.