Its interesting that most other ammunition appears readily available now, but there still is a difficulty with .22lr.
That's not really the case. Need any .223 besides 55gr FMJ? Good luck finding it locally. Same goes for just about any metric rifle caliber. All those folks who jumped into .300BLK are having a hard time as well. It's been two and a half years, and we're still not out of the woods.
People aren't buying a Ruger 10-22 and 1,000 rounds of ammo and shooting it. They're buying a 10-22 and 30,000 rounds of ammo and socking it away.
It's actually a bit worse than that. Tom's buying the 10/22, then realizing he can't get ammunition. So he's not shooting at all. He's frustrated by the fact he can't get ammunition at the local shops, and he's disgusteed by the predatory pricing and behavior at gun shows.
In fact, Tom's wondering why he's bothering with the whole shooting thing in the first place.
In the case of rimfire, the significant sales of high-capacity .22 firearms in the years preceding the shortage should have given them plenty of notice that users would want ammo to go along with them. They appear to have completely ignored the firearm sales trends.
This is utterly untrue. The industry should have expected a spike after the 2008 election, and they should have prepared for it. They didn't, and we had a shortage in 2009. There was no shortage of harsh language between retailers, distributors, and manufacturers.
Fast forward to 2012. We had another election coming, and the economy was doing better. Manufacturers promised a boost in production and supply. For the most part, they came through. The industry was on track to have a profitable and smooth Christmas.
Then Sandy Hook happened. Nobody can expect something like that. Add in the political proposals, and that spiked demand on a scale the industry hadn't seen. Add in every blogger and salesman who predicted OBAMA NSA AMMO CONFISCATION or whatnot, and the situation turned into a wildfire.
Manufacturers don't have a giant red button that says TRIPLE AMMO PRODUCTION. If they want that to happen, it involves building new facilities, buying new equipment, and paying people to run and maintain that equipment. That entails a huge capital investment.
What MBA is going to look at doing that to meet a temporary (albeit long-running) shortage?