Got stuck in an awkward conversation last night at Dick’s Sporting Goods. Ran into an old friend who is a police officer and while we were catching up, he and several other shoppers and two store employees began discussing rumors of where one could find ammo and how far one would have to travel to buy it. Apparently the shelves have been empty since Thanksgiving, and these people were bragging about their hoards. The employees were complaining about the stampede of customers on days the stock would arrive, and how the store, Walmart, and a couple other retailers were overrun with requests for more. What rumor, price hike, political agenda, or recent change in law is causing this obsession or scarcity of ammunition?
Panic buying, like buying 20 rolls of toilet paper before a severe snowstorm.
I find it hard to believe, given OP, that you are not aware of, shall we say, discussion recently of law regarding civil ammunition. I also wonder about disingenuous questions.
Not at all. I live with a sportsman, there are several hunting rifles in a safe here and he shoots skeet competitively. Also works in a field that is a largely conservative workforce who have conservative hobbies. His answer was “rumors and panic” but has no idea what the original source was.
If you noticed, I’m not interested in a political debate, this is GQ. Do you have an actual answer or just weak snark?
I live in the Southeast and attribute the purchase and hoarding of ammo to ignorance and paranoia that sparked a rumor mill among gun enthusiasts that somehow the government would prevent them from future access to ammunition. One article I read based the rumor on a large government acquisition of ammo that was necessary to maintain adequate supplies to maintain munitions used in our war effort. Some gun enthusiasts interpreted this fact/rumor as a clandestine government attempt to buy every bullet in the world so they rushed out to stock up.
But the only actual potential legislation was concerning the size of magazines, right? Was there some other legislation specifically concerning ammo?
This gives a nice overview:
http://www.thenewamerican.com/economy/sectors/item/14716-ammo-shortages-more-than-simple-supply-and-demand
Basically, there was a rumor a few moths back that DHS was going to make a huge purchase and effectively buy up all supply (it wasn’t). In response, people started buying up any ammo that they could find. Manufacturers tried to keep up with demand, but they have little spare capacity. And whenever more ammo shows up in a store, somebody will inevitably snatch it up for their 10,000 round rainy day stock.
Only in the minds of the ammo buyers.
SOME ammo buyers -but that’s all it takes. Once ammo starts to become scarce because the crazies are hoarding it, it starts to make sense for the non-paranoid to begin to hoard it as we’ll (because they have no idea how long the shortage will last, and running out of ammo means no shooting). It becomes a self-perpetuating, snowballing problem, like a bank run.
Thank you, that is exactly what I wanted to know. Follow-up question: Do the stock-pilers know they are entirely responsible for the empty shelves, or do they believe that “the government” is forcing manufacturers to limit production, or one of the other rumors? The conversation I was privy to last night quickly escalated and I split before asking why they were hoarding.
Many gun owners became very nervous when the president and many congress members started talking about banning guns, taxing ammo, etc. in the wake of the Sandy Hook massacre. Fearing new legislation that may be coming, many gun owners started buying guns and ammo at an unprecedented pace. And who can blame them?
The panic buying has lead to shortages of guns and ammo. I am surprised, however, that many vendors have not significantly raised their prices as a result of the greater demand. The simplest way to eliminate the shortage problem is to keep raising prices until it is no longer a problem.
What bans, what guns, what ammo tax? Who said this, and where can I find any legislative attempts to accomplish anything other than limit magazine size?
The mistaken notion that if they try and secede again the rest of the nation will try and stop them.
Since you seem to be almost totally ignorant of the history of gun control efforts in this country you could start with the NRA websiteto learn something about what motivates many people. It shouldn’t take too much research to find that there has been a recent effort to ban assault rifles, which were banned not so long ago.
Just one example of many:
(Bolding added for emphasis.)
What?
Thanks for pointing me towards a lobby, but I asked a specific question. If you can’t answer, don’t. What recent legislation, failed or passed, would cause people to hoard ammo. Not just ammo for assault rifles, but all ammo? The shelves were cleared. Two of the people I spoke to planned on driving 80 miles to a Wal-mart to wait on line at midnight for shells, powder, and some sort of shell recycling/re-packing supplies. Why? What actual, concrete, written legislation has been proposed that would cause people to purchase everything from birdshot to 22 shells in bulk and clean out the stores for miles?
Okay, can you point me towards more of the “many”? The assault rifle discussion is only one I’m aware of. By the way, which assault rifles take .22 shells?
I give up.
After one cite and one example of the assault rifle ban? Won’t even bother to explain why ammunition for small caliber and hunting rifles is being hoarded? Why not?
Told’ja.