Below is a copy of a letter sent to Senator Max Baucus, Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, from Gary Marbut, President of the Montana Shooting Sports Association.

Quote :

Greetings from Missoula. You called me on October 24th, 2008, to ask me to let you know if there is ever anything MSSA needs you to do for us and for Montana gun owners. Thank you. This is exactly such a case. In an E-mail from the Defense Logistics Agency you will see that DLA has effectively ordered the immediate non-sale and destruction of all once-fired military brass. Max, this is a HUGE problem. Why is this a problem? The RKBA is only as good as the ammunition supply for the firearms we own. The shelves of the Nation’s sporting goods stores are essentially bare of ammunition. The entire ammunition market in the U.S. is highly stressed. For example, I have six classes scheduled for April to teach Montana citizens gun safety and self defense with firearms. Students must bring 100 rounds of ammunition to these classes. I thought to check this week about availability of ammunition for my students for these April classes - the most common ammunition in .38 special and 9mm. Of four primary sporting goods stores in Missoula, three had NONE - at all! One store has a limited supply that it doesn’t expect to last long. Against this background of ammunition shortage, about the only ammunition that continues to be somewhat available is that from second tier manufacturers who are remanufacturing ammunition from once-fired military cartridge brass. As of yesterday, that supply came to an end because of the DLA administrative decision to destroy (”demil”) all fired military brass. Max, I have a lot more information about the national ammunition shortage, too much to put in one email. It is both a supply and demand problem. Without that lengthy detail, take my word for it that U.S. gun owners are very at-risk for their effective RKBA because of existing ammunition shortages. This administrative decision by DLA places a log on the back of a camel already sagging in the middle. We sincerely hope that you can do something to turn DLA around, and reauthorize the flow of once-fired, undestroyed military brass from the military to civilians and civilian entities. One final thought. The military can sell reloadable brass for $2.00 per pound. Brass that has been destroyed for reloading purposes and value sells for about 35 cents per pound. So the DLA is expecting taxpayers to pay DoD extra to make reloadable brass unavailable to civilian gun owners. Please keep us informed about what can be done and is being done to fix this serious problem. Sincerely yours, Gary Marbut, president Montana Shooting Sports Association http://www.mtssa.org author, Gun Laws of Montana http://www.mtpublish.com

 

--Last edited by Dr Trout on 2009-07-22 19:55:28 --

Just in case no one knew as of yet--there are no primers for reloading either--NONE-ZIP-NADA..............

Nationwide shortage leaves gun owners scrambling, paying extra

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Posted: March 31, 2009
2:57 pm Eastern


By Drew Zahn
© 2009 WorldNetDaily



Reports from across the country confirm that gun owners seeking to stock up on ammunition are facing the same list of problems: shortages, back orders, elevated prices and a long line of people staring at empty shelves where boxes of bullets used to be.

"Just about everywhere I've been, it's sold out," Darren Lauzon told KMGH-TV in Denver after he failed to find ammunition for his new .45 pistol. "Wal-Mart, Sportsman's, wherever."

"Folks have been experiencing shortages all over the country," a spokesman for the National Rifle Association told the Santa Rosa Press-Democrat in California. "Since the election there has been a great increase in firearms sales as well. Background checks are up, enrollment in training and safety classes is up, concealed weapons permits are up, gun sales are up – and ammo manufacturers can't keep up with demand."

Gun shops and retailers agree: the press for ammunition is emptying their shelves quicker than the manufacturers can restock them.

"We're probably selling ammunition right now at a 200 percent increase over normal sales," said Richard Taylor, manager at the Firing Line in Aurora, Colo.

"We've probably got over 4,000 cases of ammunition on back order currently. But we just don't know when we're going to receive that," Taylor told KMGH. "Y2K was just like a little blip on the radar screen compared to this. I mean, it's just phenomenal."

A Wal-Mart salesman told Ross Kaminsky of Human Events, "We used to get shipments almost every day. Now we only know we'll have it when we see it. I get at least a half-dozen calls a day asking for ammunition, especially for handguns, and when it arrives, the customers buy everything."

The shortages are creating multiple complications for both gun owners and sellers.

KSNW-TV in Wichita reports the cost of ammunition in many Kansas stores has risen between $5 to $15 more per box over the last six months, and even still, many retailers are limiting the amount of ammunition customers can buy.

"It is a bad problem," Bill Vinduska with Bullseye Firearms told the station, "because we really would rather be able to supply our customers their needs; and not being able to do that is really a problem."

"When you're turning down two or three thousand, four thousand dollars a day in sales because you just can't get the product, that's significant," said Burnie Stokes from Panhandle Gunslingers to KFDA-TV in Amarillo, Texas.

Jere Jordan, general manager Midsouth Shooters Supply in Clarksville, Tenn., a company that specializes in mail-order sales of ammunition and reloading supplies, told the Associated Press that his company has sold out of ammunition commonly used in semiautomatic pistols and popular military rifles.

And even though Midsouth is taking orders for supplies used by hobbyists to handload cartridges, Jordan has no idea when they'll be filled.

"The wait? We're not even guessing on the wait anymore," Jordan said. "It's exceeding 60 days."

Who's to blame for shortages?

According to Lawrence Keane, senior vice president of the National Shooting Sports Foundation, a trade organization representing both manufacturers and retailers, the shortages pinching store owners aren't the fault of their suppliers.

"We have heard from all across the country that there is a tremendous shortage of ammunition," Keane told the AP. "We've heard this from the manufacturers, that their customers are calling them trying to get supplies for inventory, and that the manufacturers are going full-bore, pardon the pun."

The shortages, for the most part, stem from a widespread surge in customer demand for ammunition, a surge many link to the election of Barack Obama and the belief, perpetuated in part by the National Rifle Association, that the new president favors limiting the right to bear arms codified in the Second Amendment.

"Sen. Obama's statements and support for restricting access to firearms, raising taxes on guns and ammunition and voting against the use of firearms for self-defense in the home are a matter of public record," declares Chris W. Cox, chairman of the NRA's Political Victory Fund. "Barack Obama would be the most anti-gun president in our nation's history."

"After the election," Midsouth's Jordan told the AP, "where you have a change of parties to a more liberal side, I would say I guess the conservatives want to protect what they feel might be taken away from them, either through a tax, or an all-out ban."

"Everybody's just worried about the new government coming in and trying to ban guns and make everything more difficult to obtain," NRA member Kevin Bishop told KMGH. "Well, the way [Obama] has been acting, there may be a little truth to the rumor."

Rich Wyatt, owner of a firearms shop and training facility outside of Denver, told Human Events' Kaminsky that even "old ladies and young people and liberals" have been buying ammunition from him.

Wyatt's position seems to be that the new president sparked the ammunition buying frenzy with careless words from the campaign trail, such as when he said small town folks in Pennsylvania "cling to guns or religion" during hard economic times.

"Barack Obama is right about one thing," Wyatt said. "We are clinging to God and our guns, and I defy him to try to take either one from us."

My brother went up to Grice's last weekend for their big sale with a list of bullets, powder and primers we need for our various guns. I didn't think he would get everything, but he wasn't able to get anything as they were already sold out by Saturday.