The increase is demand is driving up prices, and retailers are having a hard time keeping small-caliber bullets in stock, Williams reports. One store owner said, "Before Christmas, you could buy a brick of .22s — 500 rounds — for $18. Now I’m hearing people paying $60 or $70 for one."
"At Blue Steel Guns & Ammunition the ammo truck rolls into the parking lot on Fridays. Last week, a crowd of customers was waiting for the shipment, and all 60 boxes of .22-caliber and 9 mm ammunition — thousands of rounds — were gone in 18 minutes," Williams writes. “They never even made it to the shelves,” said owner Steve Brackeen. “We just had enough time to slap a price on them and sell. And we ran out before everybody in line got some.”
Another fear driving up sales is the Department of Homeland Security’s "plan to buy more than a billion rounds of ammunition," Williams reports. "The bullets, ordered in bulk over five years, are used in the training of about 70,000 agents and officers employed by the 90 agencies included within the department."
Larry Swickard, a member of the Western Missouri Shooters Alliance, told Williams, "My understanding is these are standing, not necessarily take-delivery, orders. But the fact that Homeland Security, and the government in general, has offered no reasonable explanation for such huge purchases would be more than enough to fuel the fears of those inclined to see conspiracies behind every change in a routine.” (Read more)
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