brair; riots or not, there is a practical amount of ammo that a person needs for defense. And to be honest, I personally don't believe that there is an excessive amount of hoarding going on. Yes, some people are buying cases of ammo. But the average person isn't. The problem is; while there was a very small amount of people who were buying ammo on a regular basis for sport/plinking/etc..., the average gun owner rarely went out and shot their one or possibly two guns. But because of paranoia, many more people are now buying ammo. Lets do some basic math:
2006 stats showed approximately 21.5% or 70 million Americans own at least 1 gun.
1. I'm going to aim really high and say that 15 million of those Americans shoot guns on a regular basis. Hunting, trap, plinking, practicing, etc... (NRA Membership is around 4 million - Probably an increase in membership in the last 4 months).
2. That means that the ammunition production from CCI, Winchester, Federal, Remington, etc... including imports; was producing ammo in the amounts needed to support the 15 million; PLUS, military and police contracts.
3. Now, put a scare into people (which could be valid) about how anti-gun Obama is. (He is). About a predominantly democratic party congress; and that guns and ammo are under attack.
4. Realize that there is some turnaround required from the time CCI, Winchester, etc... starts making a bullet to the time it takes to go through the entire wholesale, retail, transport, etc... system to get it on the shelf for you to buy.
5. Now, have the normal 15 million shooters who buy ammo at WHATEVER rate they normally do; decide to just double up on their normal orders. Many bought more, but just say double. Then, have the other 55 million people (3 times the normal shooters); decide that they all want to buy simply 3 or 4 boxes of ammo.
6. Now; if all 70,000,000 gun owners (Probably closer to 100,000,000 today) decided to buy just 4 boxes of pistol ammo; that would be 14 BILLION: 14,000,000,000 rounds of ammo.
The industry just isn't set up for that. Basically; you're trying to produce 5-6 months worth of ammo in 1 month; send it out; get it on the shelf; and continue to make this much ammo. And that's just so everyone got 4 boxes of ammo which is what I'm using as an average. Then, add to this that there will be some that buy a lot more. Add also, that there are also now NEW GUN OWNERS who need ammo.
Fortunately; and the ammo manufacturers know this; most people who are buying ammo are not buying thousands of rounds. They also are NOT SHOOTING the ammo that they do buy. Therefor, the supply and demand scenario will reverse itself. But because the manufacturers know this, they aren't likely to higher and train additional workers for an unspecified length of time until people have the ammo they want and stop buying it. There will still be the sport shooters that will buy. But even they will slow down because they've probably got a year's supply instead of the normal 3-4 months they normally have.
Realize also that it isn't CCI, Winchester, Remington, Federal, etc... who are raising prices. It's the resellers. It's the "Cheaperthandirt"s of the world. When Walmart has ammo in stock, because they buy in bulk contracts, they are selling it for basically the same price they have for a while. But this is American. Companies are free to charge whatever they want for ammo. I'm all for that. We aren't a socialist country "Fully, yet". So retailers should be allowed to charge whatever they want. And consumers are allowed to be stupid. They are allowed to pay $50 for a box of 9mm if they want. People need to stop talking about laws; because that implies the government being involved. And personally, the government is the LAST PEOPLE I want involved with guns and ammunition. Buy the ammo if you want. Don't buy it if you don't want to. Hopefully, when the hoarding is over; which it will be probably by summer; the regular shooters who shoot for sport and plinking a lot will hopefully remember the gun stores and online stores that treated them right and didn't gouge the prices. And they'll reward them. And hopefully; businesses like Cheaperthandirt (Who are raping people) and Georgia arms who charge way too much for shipping and handling; will be put out of business because those who bought from them won't use them any longer.