Gun conundrum: Why is ammunition still in short supply?

The joy many gun owners felt earlier this month when the Senate voted down new gun regulations has been tempered by a stark – and disappointing – truth: America is currently a country without enough bullets for sale.

It's not as if the nation's 27 ammunition manufacturers have closed up shop or are turning out fewer bullets than usual. But demand is outstripping supply, causing prices to spike and even some police departments to shift to air rifles for training exercises. And the shortage has not abated, although it's been more than four months since the mass shootings in Newtown, Conn., sparked a run on guns and ammunition, when it became clear Congress would take up gun control.

“It’s impossible to get ammo right now,” says Jan Dillard, an employee at David’s Gun Room, in Norcross, Ga., where ammo shelves have been bare for three weeks.

What some call the great American ammo shortage is a head-scratcher even for experts, so far defying economic laws of supply and demand. Three causes are generally cited, though it's difficult to tell precisely how much each is to blame. First is panic buying among the gun-loving public, something that's been seen before. Second is a staid industry that, having not anticipated a demand surge, does not have a big enough supply of black powder and primer to quickly and significantly boost production to meet the demand surge. Third, and most controversially, is suspicion in some quarters that the federal government itself has deliberately placed a huge order for ammunition in order to drain the supply and cause bullet prices to jump for private buyers.

That last one may sound as if it belongs in the annals of conspiracy theories, but many gun rights advocates and at least some members of Congress take it quite seriously. On Friday, two Republican lawmakers – Sen. Jim Inhofe and Rep. Frank Lucas, both of Oklahoma – introduced legislation that would require an audit of the effect of government bullet purchases on the broader market and would limit the US government's ammo stockpile to six months' supply, rather than the current two years' worth stored in federal armories.

“One way the Obama Administration is able to [curb Second Amendment rights] is by limiting what’s available in the market with federal agencies purchasing unnecessary stockpiles of ammunition,” said Senator Inhofe, sponsor of the proposed AMMO (Ammunition Management for More Obtainability) Act, in a statement.

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