By Steve Pomper
When government officials’ actions reduce police protection, and they refuse to let police enforce the law, and prosecutors won’t charge lawbreakers, people get scared. When people are scared, they need to protect themselves. When scared people need to protect themselves, they buy guns—and ammunition. Now, law enforcement agencies, especially smaller departments, are feeling the ammo shortages and strains on their training budgets.
Many governments at all levels are calling for defunding or abolishing the police while also calling for more restrictive gun laws enforced against law-abiding people, including possible confiscation. Prosecutors are refusing to prosecute violent criminals while at the same time they are prosecuting law-abiding citizens for defending themselves against violent criminals.
These combined factors lead to more people buying more guns. And buying guns leads to increased ammo purchases and can eventually lead to shortages. However, there may be some misunderstandings about the reasons for the shortages and increased prices. Some believe it may just be good old-fashioned supply and demand at work. Just as people hoarded toilet paper for no good reason during the pandemic, some people are hoarding ammo.
According to Joe Ferronato at Petersen’s Hunting, “While there is a shortage on the shelves, there is more ammunition being shipped today than ever before.” He says manufacturers rather than reducing are increasing production. Ferronato believes consumers are causing the shortages.
Ferronato also said, “The events of the past year have led the consumer to believe the only way they will have ammunition is to buy obscene amounts at one time. Your average shooter buys a case while others go so far as to buy pallets, just to ensure they have it when they need it. The result is unused ammunition sitting in bulk in your friend’s gun closet instead of on the shelf at your mom-and-pop sporting goods store down the street.”
Now, the ammo shortage is also affecting law enforcement. The Detroit News’ George Hunter, as reprinted in Police1.com, wrote about an ammunition shortage for Michigan police departments. He basically seems to agree with Ferronato’s view but added that some ammunition manufacturers had to suspend or reduce production because of the pandemic. Orders kept coming in, but when manufacturers reopened, they could only do so with limited staff.
Firing Line indoor range and gun shop owner Grant Allen explained, “For 9mm ammo, it used to be $15 for a box of 50 rounds; now, on the cheap side, it’s $42 per box.” This has also been my experience buying ammunition. I recently went down to my range. I didn’t bring any ammo, figuring I’d buy some there. They were out.
Though the numbers of new gun owners exceed previous leftist assaults on gun rights, shortages of ammunition are not new. Every time there is a gun-grabber push to infringe on the Second Amendment, high gun and ammo sales and shortages follow.
Some years before I retired, during the Obama administration, there was another push for gun control. It became so difficult, even for police agencies, to get ammo, our department had to make a significant change. Most officers were carrying .40 cal. Glocks. The shortage resulted in the department allowing officers to keep the .40 cal. or switch to a 9 mm. or .45 cal. Glock. So, instead of all .40 cal., the department could order ammo for three different chambers. And with 9mm being less expensive than .40 cal., the department would also save money.
And that’s the other problem—cost. According to Peter Suciu at NatinoalInterest.org, “While ammunition is still flowing to law enforcement, the fact remains that it just costs more.” He also wrote, “A 50 round box of 9mm was about $14 a year ago before the pandemic broke out, and now it is up to $50 a box – priced at $1 a round!” During the department’s ammo shortage, I mentioned above, instructors told us the cost was about $1 per .40 cal. round.
This financial issue especially affects smaller agencies. Though police shootings are rare and, compared with training officers, expend a miniscule amount of ammunition, communities expect their cops to be adequately trained in the use of firearms. Again, though rare, police shootings involve life and death, so the price of inadequate training can be high.
Suciu also acknowledges, aside from the pandemic restrictions, the ammo shortage is being fueled by a record number of firearms sales. In 2019, the FBI conducted 13 million gun background checks. In 2020, with the ubiquitous leftist riots and the defund the police movement gaining traction, over 21 million background checks were conducted. That’s a 61.5 percent increase in a year.
What has happened to law enforcement in blue state and city America over the past two to three decades has been a train wreck that began in slow-motion and is now racing toward what I hope will not be total destruction. Ammunition shortages are just more debris hurled from the wreckage.
Leftist political officials aren’t allowing cops to enforce the law, prosecutors won’t charge and prosecute criminals, the media report leftist rioters as peaceful protesters and peaceful conservative demonstrators as violent white supremacists. And, for the cherry on top of this seditious sundae, they’re trying to take away your right and means to self-defense. Sadly, as Suciu wrote about the ammo shortage, “[It] is unlikely to change anytime soon.”