North Idaho hardware store owner confirms what we've been saying about ammo

[jmowreader]

I've recently been relaying the "I'm writing Rep. Labrador as to why there's no ammo in the stores" letters. Today we get a follow-up from the owner of a hardware store who'd written one...and he says:

"The chief aide to Rep. Labrador in Boise called me and said from what he had found out, it was as simple as supply and demand. There isn't any government buying up of powder or ammo as some rumors thought.

We just came back from the ACE Hardware buying show in Orlando, and there I talked to two store owners that are big in guns and ammo. They confirmed the above comment. They went on to say that the biggest problem is that people are hoarding ammo; instead of buying one box, many customers are buying three to ten.

One of these stores buys direct from Remington and has been for years; however, he said some of his orders have taken 18 months to come in. Remington is not opening new accounts for individual dealers. Remington has added a third shift and is now running 24 hours a day. Their production is up 110 percent - more than double - bit their orders are up 300 percent, so they can't keep up.

The chief aide to Rep. Labrador talked to one chain store (Walmart?) and was told that later this fall things may loosen up a little as the manufacturers get better caught up with their orders, but the orders are mostly going to the big chain stores and the little guys are being left out of the chain."

Oh yes...today I had to go to the farm supply store to get some water filter cartridges - they're less expensive there and when you use as many as I do you like low prices. They had quite a bit of .30-06 and 12-gauge ammo...and it was signed, "One Box Per Customer Per Day."

[mwrguy]

1. News of a shooting give them a bullet boner

and they have to go get their buy on.

If they could they'd go roll around in the blood.

[Tikki]

6. ++++++++ to infinity...sadly the real truth...

Tikki

[DURHAM D]

2. Who is "we" ?

Are you actually suggesting that members of DU bought into the gun nutterey rumor that the gubament was withholding ammunition?

[jmowreader]

5. Not at all. I'm stating a fact...

That fact being, most of us have been saying there's no ammo because the paranoid right-wingers, who believe any Democratic president is going to eliminate gun rights causing the PRWs to have to go into seclusion to protect that which is most precious to them, have bought more ammo than the ammo makers can possibly make. I've seen allusions to a mythical "Obama Preparedness Sale" that's in its sixth year, rumors of a secret army Obama has that's made up 100-percent of black men who will come to your house and confiscate all your guns...the shit's getting REALLY fucking weird. I expect someone to go to Washington and open fire on the White House in hopes of shooting the president through the wall, that person not realizing the White House walls are made out of two-foot-thick slabs of rock to keep that from happening.

It's kinda like a scene out of Up in Smoke...

"Man, I can't believe it. There's no dope nowhere."
'It's because too many people are smokin' it now, and it really makes it tough on the rest of us.'

[Tommy_Carcetti]

3. Never underestimate the blood of 27 people (including 20 first graders) as a marketing bonanza.

It blows my mind and sickens the stomach that this was in fact the case.

(And spin it all you want--"Gun owners were just afraid they wouldn't be able to buy guns after Sandy Hook, etc." Sandy Hook was the catalyst for the spike in gun and ammo sales. It all boils down to that December 12th morning.)

[jmowreader]

12. It was A catalyst, not THE catalyst

Add to it the Aurora shooting, the Washington Navy Yard shooting spree...hell, any time someone does something so bad with a gun that it gets in the paper, there's a run on guns and concealed-weapons permits.

The true catalyst? The election of a Democratic president. Guns have been flying off the shelves since Obama was elected - even before his inauguration.

Apparently the gun nuts think the government is going to send one little guy over to their house to pick up all the guns. That's stupid. If the government decided to grab everyone's guns, wouldn't they be more likely to send a Bradley full of armed infantryment?

[Hekate]

14. Small correction: The election of a black Democratic president.

[jmowreader]

15. Any Democrat will do in a pinch

Bill Clinton was also a good friend to the gun dealers' bank accounts.

[Logical]

16. Paranoid nuts! NRA members most of them. Idiots all of them! nt

[upaloopa]

4. They are told there will be a shortage so they

go out and buy so much they cause a shortage. Do they take responsibility? No it is the government who is buying up the ammo they say then go out to buy more. Self fulling prophesy.

[safeinOhio]

11. So, the classic economic bubble

begins.

[enough]

7. k&r (nt)

[badtoworse]

8. How about .22 LR?

That has been particularly hard to find.

[jmowreader]

9. You mean at the farm store?

I wasn't really looking for ammo, they just had a display of it that had the one-box limit. I would assume, though, that they were as out of .22 LR as everyone else is.

[rustydog]

10. Jesus effin'you-know-what...

OF COURSE IT IS HYPED, all a lie.

Do you really think it costs so fucking much to switch from "summer gas" formula to "winter gas" formula when oil companies make about ten BILLION a quarter??? 40 billion a year!

Same thing for guns and ammo
Why do you think LaPierre makes so fucking much money...He screams; "Obama's coming for your guns!" and Goobers swarm Wal-marts, pawn shops and Cabela's in their camo shirts and hats across America paying jacked-up prices for intentionally shorted stock- on- hand ammo.

I have 30 fucking rounds for my 9mm. ( That is about 17 rounds too many for home protection) I have a dozen for my 30-30. Yes 12 bullets and I haven't fired one shot in over 25 years. I don't hunt deer anymore. I do not need hundreds or thousands of rounds for the "black helicopters" or for the "zombie horde"

If Obama or the next Prez decides to "come for my guns", there ain't shit I can do to stop a Black hawk, a tank, a sniper or a company of trained boots on the ground coming for me no matter how many rounds I have stashed.

A couple of flash-bang distractions shot thru my front window at 2am and I ain't stopping anyone no matter how many rounds I try to hoard to stop the evil gubmint attackin' my 2nd amendment RIGHTS!!!!! (raise flag, salute, play national anthem, tear rolling slowly down cheek, show photo of Palin staring vacantly towards Russia)

Rant over, carry on.

[Blue Idaho]

13. It's not all being hoarded...

As a resident of North Idaho I can tell you plenty of this ammo is being used every weekend and not just at shooting ranges. Even though the Arian Nations is long gone, bunches of the true believers have formed splinter groups and militias that go on "weekend exercises" - especially right after pay day. There are places deep in the woods of North Idaho and next door in western Montana where you can hear what sounds like pitched battles including automatic weapons fire echoing through the woods. It's nuts.

I have no doubt folks are caching ammo but its not all being buried in the back yard.