Jan 7, 2015

New Year 2015: Ammunition Shortage Continues

NSSF has recently begun to track ammunition production because of the continued shortage of ammunition, especially .22 caliber. Prices have risen because of the commodity price for copper and other metals used in ammunition.
The major reason is that ammunition manufacturers have not been able to keep up with demand, thus shelves have emptied out and orders for bulk ammunition has been put on backorder.
Since the Fast-N-Furious scandal, there are those that believe that the government is part of the problem because of the increased government purchase of ammunition has also put a load upon manufacturer production. This consensus sparked a congressional hearing in the spring of 2013 because it was found that Homeland Security was using more than 1,000 rounds of ammunition more per person than the US Army. DHS bought more than 103 million rounds in 2012 and used 116 million in the same year for 70,000 employees.
Federal Premium Ammunition stated that government contract ammo is not taking away from civilians, but it is because of the increase in demand from the private sector.
Manufacturers have expanded their facilities to meet the demand. Last year, Remington Arms Company spent $32 million to expand its Remington Ammunition Plant in Lonoke, Arkansas and constructed a new building.
Part of the increase in demand is that more than 5 million women now participate in shooting sports and have joined the ranks of firearm owners who carry concealed and purchased firearms for home defense. The growth of firearm ownership has continued to grow as the Progressive political element continues its agenda of total gun control and firearm ban legislation.
NICS checks has increased and in December of 2014, the FBI reported that 2,309,684 NICS checks were performed with December 2012 still holding the record at 2,873,765 NICS checks.
In 2014, 11 million new firearms and 8 million used firearms were sold.
Forbes reported that there was no evidence that the government was purposefully causing the ammo shortage.



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